Good Morning Spider was one of my favourite albums of the 90s. It included this beautiful track as a thank you to the nurses of that hospital in Paddington who cared for him after a near-death experience:

This is, also from the same album, a wonderfully upbeat track about the simple joys of the sun clearing away "the junk" of the night before

Without wishing to sound glib he'd always struck me as being a fragile and damaged individual but still it's a terrible and tragic choice to make to end your own life. RIP

...Sparklehorse's early singles were getting airplay on the Radio One Evening Session and Mark Linkous was being interviewed in the music press, he came across as a troubled man with a good soul.

The songs on the band's debut - Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot (with its creaking interludes that sound like they had been pieced together from spare parts in a shed) seemed a very close reflection of his character. I loved the way that he used an answer-phone message from his mother in place of a middle-eight in Spirit Ditch.

Mark always seemed to walk a very idiosyncratic creative path - He never sounded like he was consciously imitating anyone or trying be anyone other than Mark Linkous. I really am a bit rattled by the news of his death.

This kind of thing seems to happen often enough for me to remain largely unmoved when it does, but this one has genuinely knocked the wind out of me. RIP.

RIP

What terrible news.
Sparklehorse's music was always fascinating. backwards7's final para nails it for me. A true original from Vivadixie to last year's unreleased collaboration with Dangermouse.
An artist has died.

Sparklehorse didn't once get the acclaim they deserved - be it due to the artist being unwilling to jump through the usual hoops, or EMI making a mess of things on the promotional front. Certainly, the few people I know who did get to hear the likes of "Maria's Little Elbows" loved them dearly.

I'm not one to get overly distracted by people I didn't know passing, but like backwards7, I'm taken aback by this news. RIP.

I just want to echo Backwards7's sentiments. RIP Mark . Thank you for everything but especially this.It's very personal to me.

with spiders on his eyelids

it was the characters that populated his songs and the weird little one horse towns they stumbled through that appealed to me.

Sparklehorse were great.
I saw them in a rather dingy venue in Bristol some years ago and remember Linkous being rather shy and unassuming but very friendly.
Pity.

Was just fantastic. This is tragic news.

Very sad news, first heard of Sparklehorse on the urban75 discussion board, and the poster who went on and on about them (who will probably read this) was right about them, I'll be listening to Sparklehorse today. RIP.

Sparklehorse and Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot especially, were truly original and wonderful.

My best wishes go to his family and friends. Such a shame.

Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot is one of my all time favourite records.

utter genius with sparklehorse or working/producing other artists

great live too R.I.P. mark

This is really tragic news. "It's a Wonderful Life" is one of my all-time favourite LP's and certainly my fave Sparklehorse release. Upon entry to Hot Lunch manor one is greeted by an American Sparklehorse gig poster signed by the great man himself when I met him after he had supported Pink Floyd's David Gilmour at the Royal Festival Hall many moons ago. He seemed a lovely bloke. And co-incidentally he, along with some of Radiohead, recorded possibly the best-ever cover of a Floyd song, their fragile reading of "Wish You Were Here"

Now I take notice.
Now.

Good Morning Spider, It's a Wonderful Life and Dreamt for Light Years are gorgeous albums. There are lots of beautiful, fragile melodies and song snippets that remind me a bit of the disjointed beauty of the White Album.
Here's one of many great tracks: Apple Bed from It's a Wonderful Life.

Linkous always struck me as a very fragile character.

Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot remains one of my most played albums of the 90's. One of those albums that demands to be played in full in the order recorded.

RIP