Sun Kil Moon: Ghosts Of The Great Highway

Why Mark Kozelek uses the Red House Painters name for some projects and not others is a mystery explicable only by the whims of artistic temperament. But the fact that Kozelek's new band makes the most accessible music of his career is either indicative of his stage of musical development, or a sign that Sun Kil Moon is markedly different from his best-known incarnation. His basic sound hasn't changed much: Ghosts Of The Great Highway still highlights Kozelek's angst-ridden voice and his slow-flowing interplay of folky acoustic guitars and thick, scorching electric guitars. But the album drops the abrasion level to near-zero. Kozelek's voice isn't as whiny as usual, he stays in tune most of the time, and he doesn't go in for as many 10-minute distortion-padded drones. Instead, Sun Kil Moon makes intricately woven, semi-mystical midtempo folk-rock, packed with dream imagery and snippets of personal and pop history. It's as if Neil Young wandered into a Fleetwood Mac recording session circa 1976. Ghosts Of The Great Highway is all soft spots but no weak spots, and when Kozelek brings his ideas together–like on the outro bridge of "Carry Me Ohio," where the rhythm guitar steps slowly up while the lead guitar spirals down and a few lightly struck bells jingle in between–the album sounds supernaturally informed. Other highlights include the Red House Painters-esque, exotically martial "Salvador Sanchez," the epic Western lullaby "Duk Koo Kim," and the locomotive "Lily And Parrots," which is as close as Kozelek has come to old-time rock 'n' roll, and the clearest sign that Sun Kil Moon is the result of his plunging his hands into the earth to feel around for roots.