Sun Kil Moon - Ghosts Of The Great Highway (Bonus Cd) (Reis) (CD)

All Music Guide

Sun Kil Moon is a new band project fronted by Mark Kozelek of the Red House Painters. Given the composition of Ghosts of the Great Highway, it's difficult to see how it will all turn out in the end, as Kozelek takes on the roles of singer, songwriter, guitarist and who knows what else, while the band sports two drummers in Anthony Koutsos (also formerly of RHP), and Tim Mooney (from American Music Club and the Toiling Midgets), as well as bassist Geoff Stanfield, who came from the ruins of Black Lab. There's a string trio present on the album, as well as some minimal use of keyboards, but the propulsive sounds here are guitars, drums, and Kozelek's haunted, Neil Younginflected voice. Fans of RHP's later work, such as Songs for a Blue Guitar, may be prepared for this material; but then again, maybe not. There is a decidedly languid pace here that is not as mopey as RHP's usual fare, and the melodies are more pronounced and out front, purposefully intertwining with the layers of guitars ...and strings. Lyrically, Kozelek is as obsessed with memory and the romance of it as ever. In "Glenn Tipton," the opening track, he compares the blows received by Sonny Liston and Cassius Clay to the debated preference by fans for one Judas Priest guitarist (K.K. Downing) over another (Glenn Tipton), and Jim Nabors over Bobby Vinton, and contrasts them with his own memories of his father watching latenight movies on TV, as he observes himself doing the same thing, and finally, with the death of a friend who owned a donut shop. An acoustic guitar is the sole accompaniment that this tune full of nonsequiturs needs through its verses, before a 12string, organic percussion and bass enter the middle. The lyrics may not add up, but they evoke the notion of nostalgia, the ache of time's passage, and the dreams of what might have been. Read more Less