8. The Letting Go (2006)

When Oldham recorded The Letting Go he was a long way from Appalachia: Iceland, to be exact. Is it obvious? The production is certainly more crisp than your average Will Oldham release, with immaculate vocal harmonies instead of mountain yelps, violins instead of fiddles (there is a difference). Whether that comes off as cold or beautiful or both is up to the listener. Some of the string arrangements do little more than create manufactured drama, like we saw with so many post-Britpop bands around that time.

But a good melody is a good melody no matter how hard you hit it with a glockenspiel mallet, and while longtime fans of the “punk from Kentucky” might not take kindly to Oldham having gone “full Godrich” (the producer was actually Valgeir Sigurðsson, but who can tell) few would argue with the level of songwriting sophistication Oldham had achieved at this point in his career . From the tale of conflicted lovers on “Lay and Love” to the snowbound affair of the title track, The Letting Go is a powerful album about facing cold truths about the ones we love.