Sun Kil Moon - Ghosts of the Great Highway
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Free Music Notes for Ghosts of the Great Highway
Free Music Review: Awe Inspiring
Hit: 5 Stars
I came to this album with no knowledge of who Red House Painters or Mark Kozolek were. This is the first material I heard from the group. Since, its become one of my favorite albums of all time.
This is the best album of 2003, hands down. It took me until the end of 2004 to stop listening to it on a weekly basis, and was my favorite album of 2004 as well.
Free Music Review: Uninspired...
Hit: 2 Stars
** This review is not aimed at people who may already be fans of this group. It is intended for those who may be unfamiliar with the artist (as I was) and who may unwittingly buy it based on the stellar reviews people have given it here. **
I have found the music on this CD to be whiny, monotonous, boring and uninspired.
Frankly, I am at a loss to understand the rave reviews people are giving this disc. I listen to virtually every style of music known to human ears, but I am very critical, and I found this release to be mediocre at best.
Free Music Review: Kozelek - Gifts the listener, again.
Hit: 5 Stars
Ever just stand in the shower and lose your sense of time? This lush album is awash in strings mostly due to its virtuoso lead guitar who moves between electric and acoustic at the most sublte of moments that you sometimes miss the transitions but also because of a three person string conservatory backing him up. Si Paloma is simply transporting as it alternates between cascading mandolins and sharp guitar attacks. Carry Me Ohio is going to me the song that sticks in your head with its languid beat and Mark's plaintif voice floating somewhere overhead lamenting how sorry he is that he can never love you back, begging his past to carry him forward. Kozelek empowers the past more than other artists but it never pulls him back, he seems to use it like a sensual sonic slipstream to work things out.
Duk Koo Kim has been reviewed elsewhere as the obligatory power rocker but not so. Its trademark Red House Painters. Play it back to back with Cruiser from Old Ramon and you're there - you're in Kozelek's tightly controlled night, begging for an angel, longing to be free, floating on layers of sound, dirging the lost soul, and always looking down as though out of body on a nostalgic California landscape.
One more point, Mark seems to parrallel Neil Young in one important way. Folky Neil has a Crazy Horse mud and bravado sentimentality and so does Mark. Two songs stand out in this vein - Salvador Sanchez and Lily & Parots.
Free Music Review: Glorious
Hit: 5 Stars
Perfect album. Can't say enough about this one. Transports you to the golden past of an aged photograph. Conjures up the words: honey, wheat, bygone, heart-broken, ageless. Some albums are already born and the artist just taps into that cosmic radio station and records those sounds born of aether. This is one of them. Free Music Review: Very Very Good (4.5 Stars)...
Hit: 4 Stars
Have a couple RHP albums...but think this may be better...the highs are definitely higher...The first three songs are absolute knockout punches (as far as folk goes)...Definitely Neil Youngy at times (which is a good thing)...also reminds me of Bonnie Prince Billy (which is a very good thing). Speaking of Neil...Salvador Sanchez is essentially Cortez the Killer Redux...and it works!
There's not a weak song on the album...Makes me want to buy everything Mark Kozelek ever did (and I will). He is the perfect example of how soul will outdo vocal chops every time.
If you like alt-folk and this album doesn't move you...you're dead!