SPARKLEHORSE Dreamt for Light Years in the Belly of a Mountain Capitol ****

A Sparklehorse record is always a bag of contrasts, bursting with ideas and a panoramic range while reeking of the hermetic quietude beloved of Mark Linkous. Linkous always seems to be almost brilliant - as if he's on the brink of greatness, but runs out of steam just short of the threshold. But he's finally cracked it and appears to have made his best record to date.

Dreamt seesaws between quiet and loud soundtracks of sleepy towns and rustic contentment. If the themes are relatively straightforward, the lyrics are wrapped up in surreal little parcels like coded confessions or in-jokes. Often he's less oblique, and lines like "You can't put your arms around a ghost" from Some Sweet Day strike a universal chord. Linkous is also acutely aware of the power of the voice and wields it like another instrument: on Don't Take My Sunshine Away and Mountains, his vocal is double-tracked and fuzzy, on Getting It Wrong it's all distorted falsetto.

Far from being a solitary endeavour, Dreamt includes various contributors, among them Gnarl's Barkley's Dangermouse (who co-produced several tracks), Stephen Drodz of The Flaming Lips and, notably, Tom Waits, who plays piano on Morning Hollow. As expected, low-fi Americana predominates, but Linkous constantly changes tack, with quirky pacing, electronic flashes and glitchy beats. The closing title track - all 11 stunning minutes of it - captures the spirit of the album: beautiful, plaintive and full of surprises. www.sparklehorse.com