sun kil moon?

I think the first two RHP albums is some of the best music I've ever heard. Third one (Bridge) and the first EP feels like part of that era though.

Benji is slaying me...I feel choked up through the whole thing and that last song is like a huge relief when you get to it

I don't ever shut up about it but I really think Admiral Fell Promises, while initially sounding extremely same-y with the nylon string only + similar song structures throughout, is probably one of his most poetic, proficient and beautiful albums. I know proficiency is not a critical aspect of good art but there is just SO much craft in his compositions on that record both musically and lyrically that Benji in comparison is far to the other side of the spectrum for him (given his playing capabilities as evidence particularly on AFP, the guitar melodies on Benji were probably as quickly written as the lyrics were and he's so good that there is nothing wrong with that).

what robert adam said. the first two albums plus the shock me ep have never been topped by mark. after that he is still great but the returns are diminishing.

"Moorestown" is one of the most heartbreaking songs I've ever heard.

There's a level of post-work weariness and drunkenness where the Streets' "A Grand Don't Come For Free" sounds like the most poignant album ever made. I thought I'd capture some of that feeling with a bottle of white, some "sour cream lentil curls" from M&S and "Benji". But I didn't.

(Big fan of Kozelek ... but somehow it just isn't doing it for me in the way you'd think it might.

On relisten, I'm...really torn on Benji. On one hand I admire that many of the arrangements take a lot more chances than basically anything else in his whole discography, which has generally switched btwn various types of restraint, even when supposedly "cutting loose." The combination of the somewhat brighter and broader sonic palette with the off-the-cuff lyrics does work some of the time, resulting in some really primally accessible music like "I Can't Live Without My Mother's Love" and "I Watched the Film..." and a couple others, as well as a couple of refreshingly breezy portraits like "Ben's My Friend" that would have been unthinkable even a couple of years ago. But it does have a tossed-off quality that backfires more than I cared to admit at first. What worries me is that it was so much better-received than Perils and Admiral, which are both better records that he might feel compelled to pull away from in terms of approach. (Then again he might decide that critics and audiences are full of shit and pull a 180 of some kind - predicting what the Koz will do at this point is folly.)

h8 this record but realistically simon h otm

If you love Benji you should really check out the Mark Kozelek/Desertshore album, as it is the direct lead up to Benji stylistically.

― Evan, Sunday, March 16, 2014 2:52 PM (5 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Just want to add this point that I was very surprised when the writing style carried over into Benji- when MK/Desertshore came out I wasn't put off because that kind of lack of refinement was appropriate for a side project record. Like a jam session gained some momentum and suddenly they had enough songs to make a record, and lyrically Mark had an opportunity to vent about Tim Mooney and Jason Molina dying among other things in a quickly written fashion. Never expected that approach to continue into an official Sun Kil Moon release. But given the success of artist-as-character-in-back-story-infused-records like Bon Iver and Girls it's no surprise the drama of the content is carrying this beyond the success of anything else he's done even when it is also the most underwritten by miles.

he was already doing this kind of stuff on Among The Leaves

Never gotten anywhere near all the way through AtL.

no surprise the drama of the content is carrying this beyond the success of anything else he's done even when it is also the most underwritten by miles.

I must again remind everyone that he just recently did the flagrantly autobiographical thing better on Perils, which he did none of the music for. An acquired taste I guess but the combo of simple electronic accompaniment with Koz's drifting travelogues really clicks for me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7yYMfjVNJc

as I said, it's not a new development

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqV9ilyiWK4

It took Panera bread to connect with the people

Fair enough. Among the Leaves was the literal first time he changed his approach in the autobiographical way, but MK/Desertshore and Benji seem directly from a diary and entirely unedited beyond a first draft. To me they differentiate that way. AtL and Perils both have the conversational feel yet sound to me like he worked on the songs a bit more. "Young Love" for instance wouldn't even be that out of place on AFP (though I admit it isn't the best representation of AtL on the whole).

AtL literally has one that goes

Well I wrote this one and I know it ain't great
I'll probably sequence at track number 8
And pick up some water at 7/11
On my way to the mastering session

It's called Track Number 8

Plus as far as why Benji resonated more is clear- people don't emotionally connect to funny stories about touring the same way they do about the relatable accounts of family members tragically dying in their mundane hometowns between visits to mundane Panera Breads, reflections of parents much like theirs, growing up, etc.

xpost OK, OK, fair. Benji is still farther down the rabbit hole of quickly written and patched together songs though. His choice of guitar lines plays a big part as well.

I like to imagine that he laid down some really complicated and overwritten tracks before switching to chords + blue crabcakes

blue crabcakes + sports bar shit are my favourite moments on the album

otm

always read Panera bread as Pantera bread.

I'd eat a dime bag of chocolate croissants

LOL

I just realized that Koz must be looking at post-divorce Ben Gibbard w/ dollar signs in his eyes

Does anyone know who the female vocalist on Songs For A Blue Guitar is? I remember trying to find out a few times with no luck.

Stephanie Finch

"I just realized that Koz must be looking at post-divorce Ben Gibbard w/ dollar signs in his eyes"

why? Koz didn't get a divorce

"Stephanie Finch"

she's Chuck Prophet's wife and sings with him as well.

Thank you! Looks like she had a solo album a few years ago.

Can someone please tell the dude he is NOT funny?

he has his moments. funnier than most people, i think.

Yeah, like his funny songs

With regard to "beer commercial lead guitar music" or whatever, I used to see Red House Painters perform in San Francisco in the mid-90s. Kozelek was playing mostly electric guitar in those days. He would launch into a noodly, 20-minute guitar solo at least once during every set. It used to bore the piss out of me.

there's a point in OLD MAN YELLS AT CLOUD reportage where you stop laughing at the old man and start laughing at the reporter

i could except this sort of criticism from a band like Swans or something.
not from Kozelek, which is closer to the mainstream maybe even more than War On Drugs are

xpost

accept

'Make Like Paper' is fucking awesome, and I would listen to 90s kozelek's neil young impression all night long with a smile

agreed. i got to see him do a condensed, acoustic version of River, but it just wasn't the same without the Neil Young-isms.

So, logically, out of nowhere, we're getting a Mark Kozelek solo Christmas carol album. Enjoy?

http://caldoverderecords.com/christmas/mkscc2014.html

Kozelek has been particularly prolific these last few years so more material isn't surprising.

Personally I'm quite puzzled by pitchfork's stanning for Benji. Much more into the Koz with gravitas than the borderline rapping, teetering b/w sad and jokey Koz of Among The Leaves and beyond.

The Christmas carols album was actually announced about a year ago.

I think the pitchfork review is mostly based on their tendency to overestimate albums that are made by compelling characters. They seem to emphasize artists that would have compelling backstories over artists with without that attribute.

Think about how they treat very solid albums by not so distinct artists vs solid albums by very distinct artists.

Kozelek shifted from a incredible musician, singer and poet into a sloppier musician with an unedited, heart-wrenching and uncensored series of stories to tell and that's when pitchfork perked up.

lol revisiting pitchfork scores and april got an 8.3. pretty sure pfork were woke to kozelek

Right, they considered it solid but they didn't make a big fuss- no BNM etc.

Some albums just seem to come at the right moment. Never been able to figure out whether that was the result of zeitgeist or just a good PR team.

my thing is i think that a lot of early rhp lyrics had a stream of consciousness quality that's entirely distinct from benji and was way more rich than shit hanging on walls plus someone died man

which wouldn't be necessarily measurable by pfork scores. april being an 8.3/non-bnm is kinda right imo, it's a more discursive ghosts of the great highway and not as many people would be interested in that than, say, old white guy indexes memory, inevitably stumbles upon profound shit

mostly i'm thinking of "strawberry hill"

Honestly what's kind of funny about April though is that it may be (now after Benji, perhaps) the most heard album by SKM, and largely by demographics you wouldn't expect to care... all due to Heron Blue being used in that Gears of War trailer/commercial.

i can dig the destroyer-style arrangement, but i'm not into the rapping that he's doing or whatever. maybe i'm boring but i prefer serious koz to the post-admiral fell promises goofy koz.

― pearly-dewdrops' bops (monotony), Saturday, January 18, 2014 7:30 AM (8 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol, turns out I made basically the same post in January