Search - Mark Kozelek :: What's Next to the Moon

Feed Your Head

mymansyd | Tranmere, South Australia | 06/29/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Mark Kozelek's debut solo LP is a superb rendering of 10 lesser-known (to these sensitive ears at least) Bon Scott-era AC/DC songs. Kozelek extracts every last drop of the macho hard-rock-isms that originally infected these tracks and transforms them with his acoustic guitar into gentile, Sunday-morning folk songs of the highest order. The standouts "Up to My Neck in You" and "Bad Boy Boogie" rank with his best work. This is not pastiche, Kozelek clearly loves this material and treats it with respect and grace. To avid Red House Painters pundits this is hardly new ground that he is breaking. Kozelek has on previous records tackled other MOR/Hard Rock figureheads such as Kiss, Yes, The Cars, Paul Simon and Paul McCartney. It's just that here he does it for an entire album and he does it better. His interpretative skills are so accomplished that even an entire album of Backstreet Boys' covers would probably turn out OK! Or am I going to far?"

For those about to rock?

Patrick Wilkins | Oxford United Kingdom | 05/11/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Whichever way you look at it this is a surprisingly good CD. Mark Kozelek, normally "not very happy" at the front of the Red House Painters, has made a whole CD covering the songs of metal pranksters AC/DC and, without question, it's a success on several levels. If your youth was like mine then you may well have seen AC/DC live, or even owned a record or two, then at least some of this CD will seem familiar, but not in a way you could ever have anticipated. The performance is stripped down to the bare bones of acoustic guitar and voice. In style terms, we are in the territory of pre Oscars Elliot Smith. It's a strange thing that the difference in style gives the songs a totally different emotional feel and appeal from the originals. Meanings of lyrics are transformed from AC/DC's typical crass adolescent chauvinism to heartfelt yearning and an air of lonely desperation, the word "Feel" in "Love at First Feel" for example is transformed from meaning a manhandling to a pull on the heartstrings. None of this however should be taken as a criticism of Angus Young and crew, the songs were obviously very well structured in the first place, (I remember from those gigs that the band could play) such that they can be broken down from bluesy metal rifferama to what could even be loosely be described as folk, and still work remarkably well. Although you would have to say Mark Kozelek's arrangements also deserve praise here. My particular favourites are "Love Hungry Man" which has a longing in Mark's voice that is poignant in the extreme, and "Walk All Over You" which has an air of revenge and hurt about it. So whether you know the originals or not does not really matter, it's a hugely enjoyable collection either way, if rather short at only 30 minutes."

I'm a BIG fan of Bon Scott's AC/DC

Patrick Wilkins | 10/22/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"AC/DC with Bon Scott were awesome. They wrote rock'n'roll songs more or less by the book on how rock'n'roll's suppose to sound, but yet, with a very personal touch. AC/DC sounds like no other band, and no one sounds like AC/DC. I think Mark Kozelek interpret their songs briliant! Bon Scott is hugely underrated as a songwriter, his lyrics are often clever, some very humourus and ironic, yet very soulful. That shines through very clear in Marks versions I think. Hopefully this record will make some people understand Bon Scott and AD/DC's greatness. And also make some AC/DC fans discover Mark Kozelek, not only as a great AC/DC interpreter, but also as an excellent singer/songwriter on his own. I highly recomend this album!"