Sparklehorse: Borderline, London

FIVE YEARS ago, just before the release of his band Sparklehorse's first album, Mark Linkous collapsed in his hotel room from an excess of Valium and lay with his legs folded under him for so long, he lost the use of them for almost a year. The memory of his subsequent tour in a wheelchair, and his lyrics of surreal, racked pain, has typed Sparklehorse as a thoroughbred in America's bursting stable of morose, country-based musicians.