Search - Sun Kil Moon :: Tiny Cities (Dig)

A Brilliant, Moody Excursion to the Deep Inside

Stephen Silberman | SF, CA USA | 11/01/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Mark Kozelek performs another act of musical alchemy with "Tiny Cities," which reimagines the pop tunes of Modest Mouse's Isaac Brock as deeply inward, poignant evocations of love and grief, along with a kind of soulful endurance. This isn't the first time Kozelek has found a gold thread worth saving and woven a whole coat out of it -- his solo album "What's Next to the Moon" performed a similar act of poetic transubstantiation on the songs of AC/DC. Frankly, after listening to Kozelek's haunted version of the title track, hearing Modest Mouse's rendition is nearly painful. (Sorry, MM fans.)



Kozelek deserves credit for hearing the authentic poetry in Brock's associative lyrics, but the musical atmosphere on this record is wholly his own. Using a spare palette of acoustic and electric guitars with occasional -- and exquisitely tasteful -- strings (a la Beck's "Sea Change," which comes close to the mood of this album), Kozelek creates a unified statement that stands with his very best work, including the previous Sun Kil Moon album "Ghosts of the Great Highway," his solo project "Rock and Roll Singer," and great Red House Painters albums like "Ocean Beach" and "Songs for a Blue Guitar." This album also hangs together better than "Ghosts," which was so bursting with new ideas that tracks like "Duk Koo Kim" and "Gentle Moon" almost seemed to belong on different albums. "Tiny Cities," on the other hand, is sequenced so effectively that from the first moments of "Exit Does Not Exist" -- with its glittering harmonics -- the reader is drawn on a journey to an underworld in which every song seems to deepen the mood and intensity of the last.



There's world-weariness and melancholy in Kozelek's voice, but sadness this distilled and many-layered attains a kind of ecstasy of its own. His voice also has a confidence and subtlety here that shows a steady maturation from his previous work: he has fully arrived in the place he set out for after leaving behind the somewhat precious vocal affectations of his early Red House Painters material, as lovely as those albums were. The title track also performs the neat trick of seeming like the perfect song for our shadowy, apocalyptic time: "We're going down the road to tiny cities made of ashes..." Kozelek's revisioning of it sounds like a 21st century Nick Drake facing the end of the world with wit and an insistence that creating timeless beauty is the best revenge. Like the best of Kozelek's work, this album only seems more carefully constructed and deep with repeated listening. It's hard not to play it over and over.



Kozelek is one of the most original and underappreciated musicians working these days, and this is not only one of the best albums of the year, it's one of the handful of albums from our time that will still sound fresh and wise 30 years from now."

Somewhat of a letdown considering past Kozelek covers

somethingexcellent | Lincoln, NE United States | 12/05/2005

(3 out of 5 stars)

"I've been a long-time fan of Mark Kozelek in just about every single musical project that he's undertaken. His early music in Red House Painters helped me through some rather rough periods of my life and his work since then has all been at the very least quite good. If nothing else, the self-titled (rollercoaster) release made me feel I wasn't alone in my depression, while Songs For A Blue Guitar still ranks as one of my top 10 favorite releases ever. When I heard that Kozelek was going to be doing an entire album of Modest Mouse covers, I was hopeful, but somewhat cautious.



It's true that he's done cover albums before and they've turned out fine. What's Next To The Moon seemed to wring emotions out of the music of AC/DC that I never thought possible, and over the years he's done amazing covers of both Simon And Garfunkel's "I Am A Rock" and even a weird version of the Star Spangled Banner. Unfortunately, Tiny Cities seems to be one of the first major stumbles for Kozelek, and there are several reasons for it.



The first is that instead of adding some sort of urgency or pulling out some unique quality from the songs themselves, most of his reworkings of Modest Mouse tracks completely sterilize the originals into rather mush-mouthed coffee-house covers. Kozelek picks songs from every single album from the group, and while I applaud his choices, his actual performances are pretty narrow in scope (usually limited to repeated guitar phrases and some sort of slight melody and timing change with the vocals). In fact, other than a couple tracks, it doesn't even sound like a Sun Kil Moon release, as only a few tracks feature much more than acoustic guitar and vocals. Instead, the release limps by with weepy covers of tracks like "Jesus Christ Was An Only Child" and "Tiny Cities Made Of Ashes" (the worst offender on the album) that suck most of the interesting qualities from the originals.



All of the above said, there are a couple standouts, including the full-band "Dramamine" (that keeps the woozy feel of the original and actually builds on it) and "Grey Ice Water" (where Kozelek duets with Emily Herron over a march-step snare and some pretty guitars). Out of the subdued pieces, the closer of "Ocean Breathes Salty" Kozelek manages to pull the ultra-melancholy out of the lyrics and set them to a subdued arrangement that makes the track his own (like the best of his covers). It was a valiant try, but Tiny Cities just doesn't have a lot going for it unless you're a die-hard fan of Kozelek.



(from almost cool music reviews)"

Usually I'm a skeptic...

Aging Hipster | Washington, DC | 10/10/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"... But honestly, I think this album is brilliant.



I know nothing of Sun Kil Moon/Red House Painters/insert other name-dropping incident here], but I AM familiar with being a *huge* Modest Mouse fan.



That being said, I also have eclectic (admittedly bizarrely so) taste, and when this version of "Neverending Math Equation" was put on a mix CD for me, I didn't even realize what it was (I didn't have the track listing handy). I just thought, "Wow, this is a nice song... I wonder who is this?" Then it started sounding eerily familiar and as it dawned on me what the song actually was, I couldn't stop giggling. Bought the entire album, and now it pretty much lives on repeat.



If you're a "Modest Mouse Purist," so to speak, you may not like this album... AT ALL. And from what I've read, if you're a die-hard fan of *this* artist, you probably won't like it either. But if you're either a) addicted to cover songs, and/or b) readily open to and fascinated by the idea of reinterpreting different musical styles, then I recommend not only getting this album, but also getting the Modest Mouse originals and enjoy the Dichotomy Circus that ensues..."