Admiral Fell Promises

Do not trust the following since for this reviewer Mark Kozelek a.k.a. Sun Kil Moon could sing the menu from the local Chinese takeaway and five stars would follow. Ever since his days in the Red House Painters a growing number of people have been in "on the secret" that the spellbinding voice and songs of Kozelek rank up there with the best in modern music and that "Ghosts of the Great Highway" and "April" have been two of the greatest albums from the past decade (see other reviews). "Carry me Ohio" off "Ghosts" remains one of my all time favourite songs and as such for this reviewer this is one of the most anticipated albums of 2010. It has streamed on Kozelek's Myspace page for well over a week and can be accessed now by the curious listener.

Kozelek makes music that is haunting, deep, melancholy and often very intense. On "Admiral Fell Promises" his latest album under the Sun Kill Moon moniker he locates in his music much more in the territory of previous songs like "Heron Blue" rather than the Neil Young orientated rock of "Salvador Sanchez". This is fully an acoustic set performed entirely by Kozelek on nylon-stringed guitar with a Spanish ambience pervading throughout its course.

"Admiral Fell Promises" in terms of seasonal cycles is a very autumnal album. It reeks of an atmosphere of falling leaves, cold grey days and a certain nostalgia linked to the imminent arrival of winter. It starts off in splendid style with "Alesund" opening with a long guitar introduction and drifting into a brilliant melody slightly reminiscence of Bob Mould's "Sunspots". Kozelek's guitar playing throughout is immense and his vocals are clear, a fault on some of his songs in the past. The exquisite "Half Moon Bay" gently rolls and speaks of "leaving the world behind" a quality which this music constantly induces. "Sam Wong Hotel" is so fragile it could break with a superb acoustic guitar section about 3 minutes in. It is followed by the near eight minute "Third and Seneca" which is probably the nearest equivalent to being this albums "Lost verses". Listen to the "Leaning Tree" one of the true highlights of AFP and you discover three songs within a song one a yearning love song the other from about 2.00 minutes on a much harsher dream like composition full of bubbling flamenco style guitar and then after five minutes a saunter to the finish line.

Both "Australian Winter" and the title track have been well trailed around the web for weeks. The brilliant former song could have equally been named "Andalusian winter" bearing in mind its authentic Spanish quality and its dramatic flourish. It is destined to be a staple of Kozelek's live set as is the title track which is probably the most accessible song on the album. Weaknesses are few but "Church of Pines" with its weird echo vocal is not a great success.

"Admiral Fell Promises" is nearly sixty minutes containing all kinds of shades, shadows and light. I am not sure it would be the best starting point for anyone new to Kozelek to access his work since it may be seen to be too monotone or lacking upbeat interludes. Yet the comment in Jon Brown's excellent Amazon review of "April" is pertinent at his point where he argues that Kozelek's music is like "a fading Polaroid in reverse - the more you expose yourself to it, the more it comes into focus". Thus for those who have grown to treasure his previous work you sense that in "Admiral Fell Promises" he has made an album which is more personal to him and more uniquely about his vision of music. It represents the obvious end of one journey and probably the start of another. It is a spare and beautiful record which could not be further away from the bright sunshine outside. Kozelek is a songwriter with intense gifts and most of all someone who fully understands the maxim of the great British writer Aldous Huxley who once stated that "after silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music".

The sound may be stripped back to just one acoustic guitar over the whole album, but the music is more complex, the playing more accomplished and the lyrics as dense as ever. Kozelek seems to improve with each release.

Homing in on the Spanish guitar aspect of the previous Sun Kil Moon studio album April, "Admiral Fell Promises" is less sentimental and lighter (relatively speaking, this is a Mark Kozelek record!) than its predecessor, tempered by the fact that it does not (cannot, due to choice of instrument) rock out. Though sonically a completely different animal, this somehow reminds me of Red House Painters. Perhaps it's because both LPs are quite consistent in tone, I'm not sure. It has an almost surreal folky intricacy reminiscent also perhaps of early Palace Brothers.

And somehow, you just know, this guy still has more gas in the tank. Mark Kozelek surely will be remembered as a genius for centuries. The question is, will he get the wider recognition he deserves in his own time? And, even more importantly, if he does - will he still be able to put out stuff as good as this? Or is it the very absence of hyperbole which has helped him to remain consistent over the years?

NB as with previous Kozelek releases there is an exclusive free CD EP if you buy this direct from the Caldo Verde Records, website (4 tracks: "Third and Seneca alt. version + 3 covers).

Mark Kozelek is a treasure. He has been ploughing an individual furrow for 20 years, through Red House Painters, solo albums and now Sun Kil Moon, with little deviation from the original template set out by 1992's Down Colorful Hill. Indeed I would call this admirable dedication to the cause. He is also one of the most talented guitarists around.

This album consists of virtually nothing but Kozelek's voice and nylon acoustic guitar, played classically. Opening track Alesund starts out like Duk Koo Kim but becomes folkier and more austere, with a beautiful melody. There are subtle keyboard touches which don't detract from this masterclass in guitar picking, as his playing on this and all the other tracks has reached new levels of excellence. After 5 and a half minutes or so we get an instrumental coda, a format that many of the other tracks follow. The song is jawdroppingly good, and a breathtaking way to start the album.

Maintaining a sombre mood is the following track, Half Moon Bay, with an equally pretty fingerpicked guitar pattern and Kozelek's reverbed vocals, singing about "wandering in a dream". Some of the `guitar runs' on this track are particularly impressive, though borderline show-off territory! Sam Wong Hotel is similarly brooding.

Third and Seneca is a little more cheerful sounding, with a seriously impressive middle section, before the guitar picking becomes even more intricate. The mood lightens further with the relatively straightforward You Are My Sun, as close as this album comes to a simple love song, with a chorus that simply sees him dragging out the name `Leona' ("Leeeooonaaa"). It works pretty well!

The album is a series of gorgeous musical passages. The Leaning Tree features a lovely middle section, echoing April's Blue Orchids where Kozelek sings "you came to me in a dream.... I long for one more day with you in my life." Later in the album, Australian Winter returns us to austerity with a suitably chilling Spanish guitar pattern. Amazingly, the album doesn't peter out as Church of the Pines has another fantastic melody. It sounds devastatingly sad, which really is Kozelek's speciality, before ending on a somewhat hopeful note with Bay of Skulls.

A criticism I have of this album is that most of the tracks are pretty similar, with no electric workout to balance the album. Also many of the songs are quite long, and some are a little drawn-out with lengthy instrumental guitar passages. Luckily I love acoustic guitar played like this. And this album is unremittingly lovely.