Dreamt for Light Years in the Belly of a Mountain

Recording

After the release of 2001's It's a Wonderful Life, Linkous slowly began recording the tracks that would become Dreamt for Light Years in the Belly of a Mountain at his Static King Studio in North Carolina. He would later tell an interviewer that his depression had stalled the creation of the album, stretching the recording process out to about five years. In 2006, he told Pitchfork Media that many of the songs that made up Dreamt for Light Years' track listing were actually songs that had been cut from It's a Wonderful Life: "Well, I'd quit working for a while and it started to get really difficult to live and pay the rent. So it was really getting down to the wire where I had to turn a record in. I had some stuff written that I didn't put on the last album, because they were just really pop songs. They felt like anachronisms on the last record. So I saved all these little pop songs."

After hearing 2004's The Grey Album, which mashed up Jay-Z's The Black Album and the Beatles' The White Album, Linkous invited the album's producer, Danger Mouse, to come to North Carolina and help him finish the tracks he had begun recording.

Although it was Sparklehorse's first studio album in five years, approximately 25 minutes of the 55-minute-long record were released in some form previously, dating from the sessions for the It's a Wonderful Life album. "Ghost in the Sky" was originally released on the Japanese pressing of It's a Wonderful Life. "Shade and Honey" appeared on a joint 7" split-single with the Shins and Mates of State. "Shade and Honey" was also sung by the actor Alessandro Nivola in the 2002 film Laurel Canyon, and Nivola's version is also found on the soundtrack. "Morning Hollow" was previously found as the hidden bonus track on It's a Wonderful Life. The track "Dreamt for Lightyears in the Belly of a Mountain" was originally released in 2001 under the title "Maxine" on both the LP version of It's a Wonderful Life and on the Gold Day EP.

"Ghost in the Sky," "Don't Take My Sunshine Away," and "Knives of Summertime" were released as singles in the weeks leading up to the release of the album.

Album cover

The album cover was created by artist Robert Pokorny. The image that would eventually wind up as the record cover was originally made for a promotional poster for a Sparklehorse in-store concert at Fingerprints Records in Long Beach, California. Linkous later said that he "loved that image from the first time I saw it, and I just knew that was going to be the cover of the next album... {Pokorny} really has a great sense of realizing imagery from the music he listens to. I can't really describe anything about that image that represents anything specific in the music, but it just really seems to fit to me."

Reception

The album garnered mostly positive reviews (notably from Pitchfork Media, LA Times and Entertainment Weekly)

Track listing

1. "Don't Take My Sunshine Away" – 3:05
2. Mark Linkous – voice, guitar, bass, synthesizer, strings
3. Danger Mouse – sampler, drum programming
4. Sophie Michelitsianos – voice
5. Scott Minor – drums
6. Steven Drozd – drums
7. "Getting It Wrong" – 2:16
8. Mark Linkous – voice, electric piano, bass, sampler, drums, pump organ, optigan
9. Danger Mouse – organ, sampler, drum programming
10. "Shade and Honey" – 4:08
11. Mark Linkous – all instruments
12. "See the Light" – 3:42
13. Mark Linkous – voice, guitar
14. Scott Minor – drums, electronics
15. Dave Fridmann – bass
16. Steven Drozd – echo guitar
17. Melissa Moore – violin
18. "Return to Me" – 3:18
19. Mark Linkous – voice, classical guitar, sampler, chamberlin
20. Alan Weatherhead – pump organ, lap steel guitar
21. Johnny Hott – piano
22. "Some Sweet Day" – 4:20
23. Mark Linkous – all instruments
24. "Ghost in the Sky" – 3:28
25. Mark Linkous – all instruments
26. "Mountains" – 3:42
27. Mark Linkous – voice, guitar, sampler, bass
28. Danger Mouse – organ, sampler
29. Johnny Hott – drums
30. "Morning Hollow" – 7:23
31. Mark Linkous – voice, baritone guitar, e-Bow Guitar
32. Dave Fridmann – vibraphone, wurlitzer piano
33. Sophie Michelitsianos – voice
34. Scott Minor – drums, harmonium
35. Tom Waits – piano
36. Joan Wasser – violin
37. Jane Scarpantoni – cello
38. "It's Not So Hard" – 2:52
39. Mark Linkous – voice, guitar
40. Dave Fridmann – bass
41. Steven Drozd – drums
42. "Knives of Summertime" – 4:19
43. Mark Linkous – voice, guitar, sampler, tape loops
44. Matthew Linkous – guitar
45. Melissa Moore – bass, violin
46. Scott Minor – drums, electronics
47. Tim Regan – piano
48. "Dreamt for Light Years in the Belly of a Mountain" – 10:35
49. Mark Linkous – piano, guitar loop, chamberlin, orchestron
50. Dave Fridmann – mellotron, chamberlin
51. Scott Minor – casio, electronics
52. Rex White – pedal steel