Sun Kil Moon - Ghosts of the Great Highway
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Free Music Notes for Ghosts of the Great Highway
Free Music Review: The best thing Kozelek has ever recorded
Hit: 5 Stars
Yes, that's right, it's better than "Ocean Beach," better even than "Songs for a Blue Guitar." Musically, at least, some of these songs are just about perfect, and even in his more self-indulgent moments Kozelek's talent shines through. If there's any justice in the world, this album will make Mark Kozelek famous.Free Music Review: Duk Koo Kim
Hit: 5 Stars
For the sheer power and beauty of that song--Buy this NOW!!!The rest of the album is great too. Ranks amongst Koz's best work.
Free Music Review: So hard to embrace, to grip, feel, grasp, or support
Hit: 5 Stars
This is an amazing, stellar album in every way. Each track shines with the effervescence of an inexact, prefigured vortex. On and on, the drone of a strummed acoustic guitar and the catastrophic, contemporary voice of Mark Kozelek and his cohorts, his allies and colleagues, drips sweetly with the reminiscence of a dusky, mellow afterglow. With great perfidiousness, and accuracy and aplomb, Sun Kil Moon operate the luster and contingent calmness of each devastating track as it floats effortlessly down wings of angelic sound, tone, and sonance. Unlike ersatz folk strums of late, Sun Kil Moon's harmonious hum revels in the fragrant, taciturn calmness of a unique, crafted, distinguished physical sphere. Celebrate its constitution, its provocative gestation.Free Music Review: Album of the Year
Hit: 5 Stars
With his early '90s band, the Red House Painters, San Francisco's Mark Kozelek struck a chord of disquiet and bohemian poignancy that made that band the darling of the scribbling-poems-to-the-pretty-barista-who-will-never-know-my-name set. With lovely, unadorned melodies and Kozelek's angst-ridden tributes to disillusionment, the Red House Painters influenced a score of later bands who lacked his rich melodic imagination and incisive lyrics -- Low is a good example -- resulting in Kozelek himself being typecast as the maestro of "mopecore." Then he did something unforgivable in the minds of some of his fans: he evolved.Without rehashing the epic travails and record-biz nightmares that caused RHP's fine album "Old Ramon" to be delayed in release for years after it was finished, the good news is that "Ghosts of the Great Highway" not only continues the evolutionary path Kozelek took on later RHP work like "Songs for a Blue Guitar" and his solo album "Rock and Roll Singer," it's a masterpiece on its own terms, and the most magnificent rock album of 2003.
If you thought they didn't make albums like Neil Young's "Everybody Knows This is Nowhere" anymore, cue up "Ghosts of the Great Highway," and marvel over the fact that Kozelek and company are able to cross-pollinate folk, country, punk, and psychedelic influences without sounding the least bit retro, stealing the purifying flame of Crazy Horse meltdowns like "Cortez the Killer" while sounding like no one but themselves. If you're a Nick Drake fan warming your hands over the ashes of "Pink Moon," consider the fact that at least one song on this album, "Duk Koo Kim," is as beautiful and otherwordly as anything in Drake's oeuvre (particularly the acoustic version, released on a limited edition EP last year), and consider the possibility that Kozelek is as unfairly ignored and marginalized in our time as Drake was in his.
"Glenn Tipton," "Duk Koo Kim," "Carry Me Ohio" and "Gentle Moon" are all instant classics, full of heart, understated grace, and authentic yearning, while avoiding the art-school sentimentality of Kozelek's early work. "Duk Koo Kim" is especially worthy of note, reinvented here as a 14-minute folk-punk-psychedelic apocalypse, with backwards guitars, Portuguese guitars, and bells swirling around Kozelek's aching voice. (I can't praise this track enough, other than to say that if I was a very bright teenager with a set of headphones and a bong, I'd probably decide to become a musician after hearing this song alone.) It's one of the most terrifying love songs ever written, as emotionally naked as the songs on Joni Mitchell's "Blue." (Like several of the songs on this album, "Duk Koo Kim" is the tale of a hero who died young -- in this case, a Korean boxer killed in the ring.) The only misstep on the record is Kozelek's formula-grunge treatment of his gorgeous tune "Lily and Parrots," which appeared as a hidden acoustic track on his "White Christmas Live."
At his best, Kozelek writes and sings like an oracle, and plays feedback-drenched electric guitar with as much intensity as his punk and heavy metal heroes while never descending into mere chaos and noise. If you're a music critic or record reviewer (I happen to be an editor of Wired magazine, and have no connection to Kozelek), entertain the notion that instead of hyping the latest skinny-tie buzz band that no one will care about in 3 years, you might consider running a piece on Kozelek and this album. If you're a music fan who enjoys Wilco, Iron and Wine, and other forward-looking traditionally-influenced bands, give this a listen. It's far beyond what almost everyone is doing these days.
Free Music Review: One take.
Hit: 4 Stars
I've been a big admirer of the work of Mark Kozeleck and Red House Painters for many years and have listened to their albums quite a bit, which is why I decided to weigh in with an opinion on the new Kozeleck project, Sun Kil Moon. It covers similar musical territory explored on the last RHP disc, 'Old Ramon'. The songs are similarly long and exploratory. For the uninitiated, I might make a comparison the Neil Young's 'Silver and Gold', but to me Kozleleck is more original and a better singer. His guitar playing is always very inventive, skillful and distinct; you know he plays around a lot with non-standard tunings. Speaking of singing, there is something about this album: I can barely understand any of the lyrics! It's quite melodic, don't get me wrong, I just can't pick them out. Sunny Day Real Estate tried something similar on their second album, and I'm not sure how I feel about it. I guess he wants you to hear the melody more than the words themselves. It's funny because Kozeleck and Jeremy Enigk (from SDRE) are some of my favorite lyricists ever. What if Morrissey, or Ben Gibbard (from Death Cab for Cutie) tried a stunt like that, I ask?