Bonnie "Prince" Billy We Are Together Again

Critic's Take

The best songs - “Why is the Lion?”, “They Keep Trying To Find You” and “(Everybody's Got a) Friend Named Joe” - show how strings, brass and extra voices amplify his fragile delivery rather than mask it. It is a record that wears its polish proudly while still feeling intimate and haunted, with the opener's lullaby calm and the mid-album duets delivering real emotional weight. The closing “Bride of the Lion” reframes the opener with rueful acceptance, leaving the listener convinced this run of songs is unusually and deservedly accomplished.

Key Points

• The opener “Why is the Lion?” is best for its lullaby melody and delicate, engaging arrangement.
• The album’s core strengths are its lavish arrangements and the way added voices and instruments amplify Oldham’s frail tenor.

Themes

Critic's Take

In his wry, observant manner Thomas Blake finds the best tracks on We Are Together Again to be intimate and revealing rather than merely pretty. He highlights “Strange Trouble” as containing "one of his prettiest melodies in years" and praises “Hey Little” as "one of the truest, most emotionally resonant songs about parenthood". The review points to collaborative flourishes on “Vietnam Sunshine” and the communal vocals on “The Children Are Sick” as further reasons these are the best songs on We Are Together Again.

Key Points

• The best songwork centers on the paired bookends “Why Is the Lion?” and “Bride of the Lion” which embody the album's dualism.
• The album's strengths are emotional directness, inventive arrangements, and effective collaborative vocals that broaden Oldham's reach.

Themes

Critic's Take

Grant Sharples hears the record as a communal reclamation, opening with “Why Is the Lion?” and closing with “Bride of the Lion”, bookends that make clear why the best songs on We Are Together Again feel like shared statements. He lingers on “Davey Dead” as a late-album highlight that gels "wonderfully," and praises “Vietnam Sunshine” and “Hey Little” for their radiant harmonies and orchestral pluck. The review reads like a hometown tour, insisting these best tracks show Oldham reconnecting with Louisville, family, and a warmer, more symphonic sound. It is affectionate, precise, and persuasive about which songs carry the album's ethic of togetherness.

Key Points

• “Davey Dead” is the best song because its harp, sax, and synth parts cohere into a late-album highlight that exemplifies the record's communal warmth.
• The album's core strengths are its emphasis on community, family contributions, and richer string arrangements that make Oldham's roots feel symphonic yet intimate.

Themes

Critic's Take

The record bookends itself - “Why is the Lion?” and “Bride of the Lion” act as interconnected anchors that let love counterbalance fear, while “Life is Scary Horses” stands out for its collaborative, spiritual cover vocal. “Vietnam Sunshine” and “(Everybody's Got a) Friend Named Joe” provide lighter and more immediate moments that underline the album's faith in community. The reviewer’s tone remains clear-eyed and quietly admiring, highlighting hope threaded through desolation.

Key Points

• The best song, “Life is Scary Horses”, is a spiritual, collaborative standout that turns stark lyrics into consolation.
• The album’s core strength is pairing stark observations of collapse with intimate community and friendship to offer hope.

Themes

Critic's Take

Grant Sharples writes with patient clarity about the album’s Louisville-first intimacy, praising how “Davey Dead”’s harp and saxophone cohere into a late-album highlight. The reviewer’s voice stays measured and admiring, noting that arrangements from strings to chamber-choir harmonies make these the best tracks on We Are Together Again. Overall, the album’s strengths are its sense of kinship and the way individual songs, notably “Vietnam Sunshine” and “Hey Little”, reveal communal textures without grandiosity.

Key Points

• The best song is "Bride of the Lion" because it bookends the album with communal harmonies that crystallize its kinship theme.
• The album’s core strengths are its sense of community, Louisville-rooted arrangements, and tasteful string and vocal embellishments.

Themes

Critic's Take

Paulina Subia’s voice leans into measured, almost elegiac sentences, noting how soft melodies and strings ground panic into calm - that restrained tenderness is why listeners will seek out the best tracks on We Are Together Again. The review points to “Strange Trouble” as the standout because it frames salvation as a searching question, and the bookending lion songs form a compassionate frame for the record. Overall, the reviewer privileges storytelling and communal solace, making these songs the clearest answers to queries about the best songs on the album.

Key Points

• The best song, “Strange Trouble”, is singled out for its searching questions and sense of salvation.
• The album’s core strengths are Oldham’s storytelling and the use of simple, melodic arrangements to turn dread into communal hope.

Themes

Critic's Take

Flynn's phrasing keeps the record tethered between dread and lullaby, so when “Vietnam Sunshine” unfurls bright horns and a violin it feels like release, and “Hey Little” reads as a direct, paternal benediction. Elsewhere “(Everybody's Got a) Friend Named Joe” and “Davey Dead” provide counterpoints, Joe as grateful ballast and Davey as a warning that deepens the album's stakes. The result is a compact, claustrophobic forty-five minutes that nevertheless insists tenderness might be enough to survive the night.

Key Points

• Vietnam Sunshine is the album's high point because its bright horns and violin deliver a moment of true relief and the record's thesis.
• The album's core strength is its persistent tenderness and protective parental perspective that reconciles fear with intimacy.

Themes