The four-song An Arrow Through the Bitch compiles a pair of classic early Palace singles, both of them critical stepping stones from the neo-old-timey primitivism of efforts like There Is No-One What Will Take Care of You to the more full-bodied, richly contoured, mutant country-rock of Will Oldham's later work. Notably more defined and robust than previous Palace outings, the Come In/Trudy Dies single captures the polarizing emotional extremes of Oldham's singular vision, juxtaposing fragile, poignant sincerity against punishing, overripe morbidity. After so many tales of incest, alcoholism, and hellfire, Come In proves positively revelatory -- never before (or arguably since) has Oldham's high, fractured voice seemed so truly gentle and empathetic as on this brief and deceptively simple final farewell. Trudy Dies is conversely so grim, so relentlessly melancholy, that its portrait of a widower's torment verges on the ridiculous -- it's probably a masterpiece, but just try washing the acrid taste from your mouth after it's done. With Horses, Oldham first served notice that the gothic mountain music approach of past Palace outings was as mercurial and mutable as the group's name; a Mekons cover that manages to encompass so many Oldham obsessions (ponies and Satan chief among them) that it could easily pass for an original, the song's shuffling folk-rock melody treads familiar ground before climaxing in a blistering, feedback-drenched guitar solo that wouldn't sound at all out of place on one of Neil Young's records with Crazy Horse. Marking Oldham's first recorded excursion into explicitly country-rock territory, Horses effectively outlines the blueprint perfected on the third and finest Palace LP, Viva Last Blues, yet it's unique in his output for its anthemic grandeur -- it seems that covering his beloved Mekons enabled Oldham to forge the kind of larger-than-life sound that the self-imposed austerity of his own music would never allow. ~ Jason Ankeny, Rovi

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