Much has been said about Dark Night of the Soul. It was supposed to come out last year but legal wrangles delayed the release up until now. In the meantime, a book with the artwork was published, accompanied by a blank CD-R with the instructions to do with it whatever would please the buyer. Then the music got leaked. This is obviously where the blank CD-R came in handy. Then Vic Chesnutt, one of the contributors, committed suicide. A few months later, the great Mark Linkous, main contributor and one half of the album's producer-duo, committed suicide. However morbid it may sound, all of the above was publicity no marketing campaign could buy.

So what’s the actual end product like then? Well, on paper it’s a visual and musical wet dream. You put producer Brian Burton (Dangermouse), the late Sparklehorse linchpin Mark Linkous, and visionary director David Lynch in a room with a host of great artists and you should end up with an album that is far greater than the sum of its parts. But the key problem with this album is its consistency.

In saying that, three quarters of Dark Night of the Soul is good to brilliant, and only Julian Casablancas’, Iggy Pop’s and David Lynch’s (musical) contributions are not quite of the level you’d expect from the album. Casablancas’ “Little Girl” would sound more at home on a Strokes long player, and even then it would be nothing more than a reasonable album track.

The case of Iggy Pop is slightly different. You could argue he is one of the bigger names attached to the project and therefore the expectations are slightly higher. However, “Pain” is the biggest disappointment of Dark Night of the Soul. Some of the guitar riffs are great but as a whole the song sounds tired and Pop’s performance is less than impressive.

With Lynch, I just wish there would be a bit more of the visual art in the CD digipack rather than the two vocal contributions he’s made. Especially since those two tracks feel a bit like album filler. If it is really a visual and musical collaboration why are the regular punters, who can’t pay top dollar for a 100-page photo book limited to 5000 copies, short changed with a grand total of eight pictures off the hand of this great director?

However, there is also a very bright side to this darkly-themed record. Flaming Lips’ “Revenge” would not be out of place on Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots and is probably the best song on the album. It finds Flaming Lips performing at their peak and Linkous and Burton enhance the track even more. Former Grandaddy frontman Jason Lytle features on two tracks, “Jaykub” and” Everytime I’m with You”, which are both outstanding.

The same goes for Gruff Rhys’ “Just War”, and Frank Black as he rasps and grunt’s his way through “Angel’s Harp”, the only ‘louder’ track of the album that really delivers on its promise. “Insane Lullaby” lifts the curtain on great things to come, with James Mercer and Dangermouse showing a glimpse of what would eventually become Broken Bells.  The remainder of the songs which feature Suzanne Vega, Nina Persson of The Cardigans and then Mark Linkous himself are all good tracks in the indie-rock vein and fit well into the rest of the album.

The end result is a very good album, one that would still very likely make my top-10 of 2010. It could’ve been just that bit better though, and some of the tracks don’t do justice to the majority of the album. Maybe the next thing could be a Dangermouse/Flaming Lips/Jason Lytle/Gruff Rhys get-together? From the evidence provided on Dark Night of the Soul, that wouldn’t be such a bad idea.

Album Score: 7.5/10