It takes a special kind of musical talent to be able to stand alone with just a voice and an acoustic guitar and make music that captivates for the length of an entire album. It's a pretty short list of musicians that can do that sort of thing. Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan, of course, Nick Drake, Johnny Cash, Townes Van Zandt, Elliot Smith, the point is that it isn't just anyone who can conjure magic with only vocals and a guitar. "Admiral Fell Promises" confirms once and for all that Mark Kozelek is indeed one of those rare talents who can produce an entire album full of compelling and emotionally resonant songs with just his voice and a guitar.Kozelek's third album of original material under the Sun Kil Moon moniker, "Admiral Fell Promises," is also his first all acoustic studio album. Certainly Kozelek has produced similar albums before, but they have been live recordings usually consumed solely by die-hard fans. This is the first time that he has stepped forward without the aid of a backing band or collaborators and produced a wholly original album within the solo acoustic framework. While on paper one may fret over the absence of varying instrumentation to fill out Kozelek's songs, a single listen to "Admiral" will assuage any fears (and trust me, I had those fears. What makes "Duk Koo Kim" the "Stairway to Heaven" of indie rock - and it is - is its slow burning electric guitar, percussion, drums and strings, so I was more than apprehensive when I learned of Kozelek's approach here).
Kozelek's voice has always been immensely powerful. Hell, even his speaking voice is alluring, so it isn't entirely surprising that it could carry an album. What makes "Admiral" so successful, though, are the compositions, as well as Kozelek's talents as a guitarist. Kozelek has crafted an album of songs that are as gorgeous as they are complex, which is no small feat. Album highlight "Third and Seneca" is a perfect example. While Kozelek is tossing off lines like "scenesters with their beards and tennis shoes, skinny girls and pudgy ugly dudes," he is also meticulously crafting bridges of classical guitar breakdowns, as well as shifting musical movements.
The album is split between sublime love songs and dark autumnal numbers. What is kind of amazing is how seamlessly each blends together. This isn't an album where you skip the romantic numbers when you are in a dark place, although I'm not so sure the same is true in reverse, regardless of how seamlessly they flow. Overall this is an album that will play best late at night or in the fall and winter.
As far as the songs to put on your new girlfriend's mix tape, "You Are My Sun" is my vote for the most romantic song of the year. A gently picked number that features Kozelek comparing his lover to all the things she reminds him of is punctuated by a multi-tracked delivery of her name, "Leanna," that will have any listener swooning. The album's titular track finds Kozelek continuing to woo with lines like "a million nights lead to this one night we are spending, and I know it's better here than anywhere I've been going," while playing overwhelmingly exquisite guitar motifs. Although the song's final lyrics are ambiguous it hardly matters in the face of such beauty.
Like I said, though, there is some dark stuff here. Tragedy casts its long shadow over the deeply affecting "Half Moon Bay." Early on Kozelek sings of "the painful midnight cry, when one leaves the world behind," and spends the rest of the song attempting, and failing, to pick up the pieces as a survivor left behind. "Australian Winter" and "Church of the Pines" are equally drab (in a good way) and meditative. "Church" is one of the only songs here that subtly introduces extra instrumentation. There is a tiny touch of brushed percussion to compliment Kozelek's multi-tracked vocals and guitar that makes it easy to imagine what this song could have been had he instituted a full backing band. Fortunately the song is still a highlight on an album full of them, so even though it nods ever so slightly toward the fuller sound of previous Sun Kil Moon albums, the song is perfect as is.
"Admiral Fell Promises" is easily the most beautiful album of this year. It isn't entirely surprising that I would be writing that about a Sun Kil Moon album. What is surprising is that after all of these years Mark Kozelek can entirely forgo the aid of a backing band, and all of the instrumental flourishes they have provided, to captivate singularly with his voice and talent as a guitarist and join the ranks of those legends I mentioned earlier. This is the wheat separated from the chaff, it is the album that solidifies Kozelek as the talent he has always been.
For whatever reason Koz has never penetrated Wheeler's cold cold heart, but she did say this: "I liked him in Shopgirl."
"You Are My Sun"
"Third and Seneca"
"Australian Winter"
I agree with Wheeler.
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