The Letting Go

Decamped to Iceland, Will Oldham, a.k.a. Bonnie “Prince” Billy, doubles down on his usual idiosyncrasies for this beguiling 2006 album. For all the stately romance of opener “Love Comes to Me” and the soft-stepping intimacy of “I Called You Back,” between those bookends lies a truly unpredictable journey. Nico Muhly’s burnished string arrangements and Dawn McCarthy’s pleading vocal harmonies both adapt to match Oldham’s free-flowing mood swings, graduating from wispy softness to sloshing volatility for the darkly delivered “The Seedling.”