Sun Kil Moon - Universal Themes

It has been sometime since the demise of the Red House Painters (15 years to be precise) and while Mark Kozelek using the moniker Sun Kil Moon, may have initially kicked off his 'solo' career in similar vein, that is no longer the case. 

Things began to get interesting round about the release of the poetic and emotional 'Admiral Fell Promises' in 2010. For me, the development reached fruition last year with the superb and intensely personal 'Benji'. Now, a mere 16 months after the release of 'Benji', Kozelek has released the even more astonishing and unusual, 'Universal Themes'.

Casual listeners who are not familiar with his post 2010 work may well be put off by the style and structure of the 'songs' on offer here, for Kozelek defies the usual conventions of songwriting. Forget what you may be used to - a couple of verses followed by a chorus. What we get from Kozelek is a stream of consciousness that emerges almost like a conversation set to music. Furthermore, the songs have a habit of changing at unexpected times so a track that may start off rocking like something by Neil Young and Crazy Horse ('With a Sort of Grace I Walked to the Bathroom to Cry) suddenly and without warning changes to a slow burning guitar blues with words almost spoken over the top. Other tracks dissolve into spoken interludes backed by gently plucked nylon strung guitar.

The themes of the songs are quite simply about life (Kozelek's) and death though perhaps not quite as much of the latter as was featured in 'Benji'. The death referred to in the opening track is that of a possum Kozelek and his girlfriend initially find injured. Interspersed with a tale of going to see the band Godflesh play, the track is in truth a meditation on mortality. 

There are a lot of subjects covered in the eight tracks on this album (none of which are  under 6 and a half minutes in length) and the subject matter is not always easy. I am occasionally put in mind of Bob Dylan's 'Ballad in Plain D' a track I like but which was so close to a situation Dylan was less than proud of that even he later confessed his regret at writing it. Perhaps Kozelek will one day look back at these confessional songs and have some regrets. Personally however, I suspect he will not give a shit.