It’s been 13 years since the world lost Mark Linkous, the man behind the cult-beloved project Sparklehorse. Linkous died by suicide in 2010, and there hasn’t exactly been a ton of previously-unreleased Sparklehorse music out there in the world since his passing. In 2019, Danger Mouse shared “Ninjarous,” a song that he recorded with Linkous and MF DOOM, another artist who’s no longer with us. Late last year, the uncovered track “It Will Never Stop” got an official release. And now we’re about to get an entire previously unreleased Sparklehorse LP.

Since Mark Linkous’ death, his brother Matt and sister-in-law Melissa, both past Sparklehorse collaborators, have been the archivists of his estate. With the forthcoming album Bird Machine, they’ve combed through the songs that Linkous left behind, many of which were almost finished. Matt and Melissa co-produced the album with Alan Weatherhead, adding to the tracks when they felt that additions were needed. In a press release, Melissa says, “It was as though the songs let you know. Mark communicated these songs. We just did our best to transmit them.”

Bird Machine opens with “It Will Never Stop,” the song that came out last year. It’s got Grandaddy’s Jason Lytle adding harmonies on another track. Today, we get to hear “Evening Star Supercharger.” This song has some seriously bleak lyrical imagery: “Dreaming on the rails of angels dead drunk in the snow/ And a train that never blowed, took my legs and I bled out slow.” But the song itself is soft and upbeat. Matt Linkous plays guitar, while Melissa Moore Linkous adds violin. Melissa and Mark’s nephew Spencer sing backing vocals. Below, listen to “Evening Star Supercharger” and check out the Bird Machine tracklist.

TRACKLIST:
01 “It Will Never Stop”
02 “Kind Ghosts”
03 “Evening Star Supercharger”
04 “O Child”
05 “Falling Down”
06 “I Fucked It Up”
07 “Hello Lord”
08 “Daddy’s Gone”
09 “Chaos Of The Universe”
10 “Listening To The Higsons”
11 “Everybody’s Gone To Sleep”
12 “Scull Of Lucia”
13 “Blue”
14 “Stay”

Bird Machine is out 9/8 on Anti-.