Search - Sun Kil Moon :: Ghosts of the Great Highway (Bonus CD) (Reis)

A Brilliant, Haunting Album (slightly enhanced by the bonus

Stephen Silberman | SF, CA USA | 02/11/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Since this package is a rerelease with bonus material -- and since the original release now appears to be out of print -- I'll reiterate my original review below with a paragraph at the end about the bonus tracks.



Album of the Year, 2003



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.



"Ghosts" disc two, 2007



Hearing these bonus tracks (two brilliant, one fine, and two only mediocre), I suggest that what Kozelek should have done was to release "Ghosts" originally with the instrumental "Arrival" inserted somewhere in the running order, and finishing with either version of "Somewhere." Kozelek's reinvention of West Side Story's yearning love song is profound, heart-wrenching, and gorgeous. (The yearning is even more poignant knowing that the song's composers, Stephen Sondheim and Leonard Bernstein, were gay and bisexual respectively, but the feelings expressed are universal.) "Somewhere" would have been an emotionally devastating capper to a magnificent album; at least we have it now. I prefer the slightly punchier second take, which employs the same Portuguese guitar-like instrument as "Duk Koo Kim" on the original album, but the string arrangement on the first version is also lovely. The straightforward folky reading of "Salvador Sanchez" is fine; the other two bonus tracks are merely competent. In my dreams, Kozelek would also have supplemented this bonus disc with the astounding double-tracked acoustic version of "Duk Koo Kim" that appeared only on a vinyl EP -- it's one of the true masterpieces of his career, and is now in danger of being a "lost" track available only to connoisseurs. But enough second-guessing. This is a great album, now made slightly greater."

Woken up from a dream last night, somewhere lost in war...

William D. Doherty | 02/09/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"To me, this is Mark Kozelek's masterpiece. Ever since I purchased this album in 2004, it's been one of my favorite albums, and I believe now, it is my favorite album. There's a little bit of everything on this album and that's why I like it so much. The guitar-laden "Salvador Sanchez," the driving rhythms of "Lily and Parrots," the nostalgia of "Carry Me Ohio," and the epic "Duk Koo Kim." The only thing holding me back from giving this re-issued album five stars is the bonus disc. I don't think it has much to offer. The versions of Leonard Bernsteins are good, the first version being better than the other, but not really noteworthy. The radio version of "Gentle Moon" and the acoustic version of "Carry Me Ohio" are both off a little bit vocally, and I think the live versions on "Little Drummer Boy" is much better, vocally and musically. The only song I actually really dig on the bonus disk is "Arrival," a two-to-three minute instrumental. But you're the consumer, so buy it and make up your mind as well."

Solid but modest expansion of an amazing album

Joseph Geni | Evanston, Illinois United States | 09/19/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

""Ghosts of the Great Highway" was one of my favorite records to come out in the last decade. This is the expanded rerelease. The first disc is identical. The second one features several rerecordings or solo acoustic versions, and a couple of new songs. The new songs are short but good, in the same hauntingly beautiful vein as the original album. Some of the rerecordings are similar, some are stripped down and sparser than the originals were.



If you don't have this record yet, I cannot recommend getting it enough. It's astounding. I think this record surpasses the Red House Painters material I have heard in depth and maturity.



If you have the record and love it, then you should pick up this version, as it will be a welcome expansion to what you've already got.



If you have the record and you think it's okay--I'm sure you exist, though I've never met anyone who has heard this and doesn't adore it--the bonus disc here is rather short and so it might not be worth it for you.



For everyone else, go get this now."