Highlights: Truck Driver, Pray For Newtown,
Richard Ramirez Died Today Of Natural Causes, Micheline, Ben’s My Friend
8/10
Latest 10-minute epic from Mark Kozelek is called “I
Watched The Film The Song Remains The Same”. Lyrically, it is what its title
suggests. Musically, it is pretty, charming and disheveled. It is also the quickest
way to know where you are with this guy: are you bored with admiration or are
you bored with solipsistic self-indulgence? But bored you are, that’s the
point.
No signs of slowing down from one of the most prolific
songwriters currently in business. Benji
is Mark Kozelek’s fifth album in less than two years. Some feat – considering that
each and every one of those mines similar depths of mumbling, world-weary
greatness. If he doesn’t stop now, this might go the distance.
Obviously, it’s the same old thing. You don’t really
expect the man to change: years ago he found his niche and is very much happy
sticking around in the same place. It’s called slow-core (no, not like Nymphomaniac), but it has definitely
gotten more upbeat with time. Kozelek’s 90’s records (as Red House Painters)
were ambient funeral music compared to this. “Jim Wise” is joyful, “I Love My
Dad” is one driving rock’n’roll groove, not terribly eventful but befitting
Kozelek’s wordy, storytelling approach. His typical song would start something
like this: “I was a junior in high school…” And then it goes on and on (and on).
Usually it works, though I begin to sense dangerous signs of self-parody in
stuff like the afore-mentioned 10-minute epic. Thankfully, the last three songs
restore my faith completely, as they are among the best Kozelek has ever
written. You will even hear some classy saxophone complementing the largely
acoustic guitar ballads. As for “Richard Ramirez Died Today Of Natural Causes”,
it is intense and evocative and one of the best songs we will hear all year.
Well, what else? Mark sounds like Neil Young on “Dogs”
and Benji will probably end up on
many end-of-year lists. Two separate facts. For me, it doesn’t quite reach the
heights of Kozelek’s 2013 albums, but if he can go on like this – God knows I
won’t mind.
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