sun kil moon?

Just listened to I Love Portugal which wasn't very good at all. I sort of think Kozelek is smart enough to be up to something, but I'm not sure what that something is. He strikes me as being a bit like late-period Hemingway, where you can almost see the dementia through the bones of the words.

perhaps this is the only way out of a bad contract that he signed with himself

he spends a lot of time alone and builds up a lot of resentment and he drinks a lot so he thinks he's funny and its funny to annoy people.

i dunno though, i kinda enjoyed this record, it's really weird,

It's really just him overcompensating in his attempt to / as a result of:

1. Avoid SKM music just progressively getting safer and more nuanced as he gets older, which happens with many artists as any youthful angst progressively disappears from their new music with time. Most artists seem to kind of fall into a role of feeling like they need to put their sound into a more measured and sophisticated filter as they age. This was his trajectory up until AFP.

2. Capture in his own music his renewed love for early Modest Mouse records

3. Exhaustion after putting all of his virtuosic try-hard into AFP (as well as everything leading up to that point), and just feeling more comfortable talking candidly about his experiences and observations through song (Among the Leaves results).

4. After experiencing some grief in his life, he gets very confessional and the style finally resonates better with audiences. (Perils, MK & Desertshore and Benji result).

5. Combine the above while also attempting to more desperately rebel against the first point but probably telling himself he's doing something super unique and interesting and pretending it isn't just giving up at trying to actually "write" music or words like he was once capable of motivating himself to do.

I don't think I could have formatted that any more confusingly, sorry. Just writing thoughts quickly.

In early Sun Kil Moon days he was saying his lyrics had become more ambiguous as opposed to RHP's diary style but that seems to have reversed in an extreme fashion.

Exhaustion after putting all of his virtuosic try-hard into AFP

Yeah there's just no way in hell he's putting in anywhere near as much time and effort these days as he did on the first three SKM records, why bother when he can get plenty of attention without bothering to actually compose

I mean, we run the risk of pretending that art is measured strictly by a show of objective proficiency in composition and execution, but there are plenty of context clues on a overall timeline to indicate that in his case he is probably killing 2 or 3 birds by taking the easy route AND satisfying some of those other points/theories I listed at once.

yeah I almost added for clarity that "effort" is obviously not a good yardstick of quality generally, I just think it's instructive/useful in this case

I wonder what he's 'working through'? He feels like a late Roth creation at times, stubbornly raging against the dying of the light. And, like Roth, sometimes maybe it just needs an editor to stand up and say 'edit, ffs'.

In short I think it's that he's sick of being a musician but is enjoying the newness of being a beat poet instead.

> Just listened to I Love Portugal which wasn't very good at all.

I dunno, the first three and a half minutes or so reminded me of mid-period Red House Painters, which I'm alright with. Wish it faded out after four minutes or so.

> I wonder what he's 'working through'?

Maybe he's working through making a living. He's putting these out himself, right? I wonder what his profit margin and sales are on something like this. Geez, he's also got an EP coming out in April and another Jesu collaboration in May.

this album is like someone took a bunch of Marc Maron's podcast intros, slowed them down and strumming a guitar over them.

This is one weird record.

To my horror, this is the most I've ever liked Mark Kozelek. It helps to really not listen to the lyrics, and just take it as weird repetitive synth-loops.

David J’s Impressionistic Take on Sun Kil Moon’s Sprawling New Record

Jesu / Sun Kil Moon "30 Seconds to the Decline of Planet Earth" now streaming here: http://www.sunkilmoon.com/30seconds/

Hoping he's grown tired of reading fan letters out mid song!

Quite enjoyed much of that.

anyone who gets through all of "wheat bread" deserves a medal imo

I gave up 4 (5?) songs in, when he started bragging about his humility and how many mates he's got. He may have been in character or just taking the piss, I'd lost track by then.

Weird. Played this last night, listening while ironing, and genuinely enjoyed it (to the point of pre-ordering it) but playing it again ... my god, there are some awful bits alongside the beautiful bits. He reads another fan letter.

Apparently, he's about to release his 4th album this year.

must have received more mail

That "Ben's My Friend" track was all right. Sports bar shiiiittt...

http://www.markkozelek.com/img/november10_2017_2.jpg

11/10/2017

Koz has, by my estimation, released 334 minutes of music this year.

Is that rodney bingenheimer

ha

met and spoke with nels a few times

hes a cool guy

http://www.sunkilmoon.com/

he's almost singing again

got to "I had dim sum this morning" and had to turn it off

lol

wait is the new SKM album really titled "Mark Kozelek"?

Sun Kil Moon ended in 2014 with an interesting, confessional album. Wonder what he's been up to since then.

wait is the new SKM album really titled "Mark Kozelek"?

it also has a track named 'The Mark Kozelek Museum'

well, this is thoroughly depressing

it really puts meta on things, though, doesn't it?

too much. there's too much fucking meta

not sure if someone mentioned elsewhere already but ghosts of the great highway is on spotify now

There's another Sun Kil Moon album. Apparently it includes a song about the singer from Kings of Convenience. "Music can't get any worse," (or something like that) say Norman Records.

haha, that's a bit harsh

interesting that the related artists on Norman Records site are "provided by the Spotify Web API"

Tried my usual attempt to make it through a single listen of the latest SKM/Kozelek release. Bailed when he started the Pazuzu impressions on 'Linda Blair' ...

I've been hearing a lot about this moment on "Linda Blair" that is the low point of the new one. Though I don't have any desire to check it out!

I tapped out several albums ago but these reactions brought a perverse curiosity that nudged me to check it out. And wow, it's quite the accomplishment, so triumphantly unlistenable.

Was watching Austin City Limits the other day, a split show between The War on Drugs and TV on the Radio. "Under the Pressure" by TWoD was so impressive, brought back to mind Grumpy Koz's live complaints a few years back, and the widening gap between the quality of their output. The last MK album was the worst yet, hope the upcoming SKM is better.

SKM used to be the all-time favourite band of a friend of mine, but not anymore - I think since Among The Leaves, I remember how he cited the lyrics of Sunshine In Chicago as a major example of Kozelek's decline.
Coupled with various bits I heard of both music & reports of Kozelek madness, I've followed my friend's advice to stick to the earlier records. 'April' remains absolutely stunning.

is this an SKM album or the new "Mark Kozelek" album (s/t)? because I started listening to this yesterday and I actually liked the first song, which is the first thing I've liked since Among the Leaves.

oh I guess there is an SKM album ('this is my dinner'). I know a few people who are really into these albums, they find them immensely interesting. I find them mind-numbingly dull. i don't know what he's thinking.

I gave it another go, skipping 'Linda Blair' this time. Some of the music's not too bad, better than the last few records. I even quite enjoyed 'Candles'. And there's nothing here quite as obnoxious as him corpsing while reading out earnest fan letters in the middle of a song.

No desire to listen to it ever again though.

"SKM used to be the all-time favourite band of a friend of mine, but not anymore - I think since Among The Leaves"

Mark would have made things much easier if he had retired the Sun Kil Moon moniker after that album came out. It's annoying to have to bookend any discussion/recommendation with a big loud disclaimer given half of his releases are the antithesis of the other half under SKM.

Benji is the kind of album you can only make once. I don't really know what to do with most of the stuff he's released since, and also his frequent pissiness is kind of insufferable.

lol what the fuck is this