I’m not going to start this review with a biography of Mark Kozelek nor am I going to discuss anything other than the music contained within ‘Universal Themes’. If you are interested in gossip and controversies, go ahead and search the net. I’m sure you’ll find him fascinating.
The opening track, ‘The Possum’, is a sprawling combination of music and spoken word which builds slowly over the first 3 minutes to a metronome like beat, until breaking off to a gentle and musically sparse diary entry revolving around an injured possum, a metaphor about growing old and fat and still going out to a Godflesh gig, a relationship with a woman named Caroline and death. At just under 9 minutes long, and lacking any coherence ‘The Possum’ will be overwhelming to someone who is new to Kozelek’s unconventional style.
‘Birds of Flims’ comes next, standing out from the rest of the album in its cinematic production, musically beautiful and still lyrically interesting if less meandering than the rest of the album tracks. I believe the song is about the time Kozelek spent filming ‘Youth’ in Switzerland, a Paolo Sorrentino film in which he plays himself. If I were to tell a friend to listen to this album, I’d ask them to listen to this song first in the hope that it’s rolling melody and almost choruses will be enough to persuade the listener to play and stick with the rest of the album.
Now we’re moving into bluesy guitar solos, rocky riffs and almost Tom Waits-like vocals on ‘With a Sort of Grace I Walked to the Bathroom to Cry’. A theme that continues throughout the next two tracks, to a certain extent.
I remember when I first heard Led Zeppelin’s ‘Tea for One’. Laying by my bedroom window soaking up the warm afternoon sun.
Sun Kil Moon – With a Sort of Grace I walked to the Bathroom to Cry
The Led Zeppelin influence is abundant, most clearly on ‘Little Rascals’. Around the two minute mark the song takes a dreamy, indian summer, meditative chants turn. Reminiscent of ‘Ramble On’, ‘Thats The Way’ or ‘Friends’.
‘Garden of Lavender’ is melodic and folksy, probably the second song from the album I’d recommend listening to. About seven and a half minutes through, Kozelek breaks off into spoken word again and a certain lyric caught my attention – as perhaps as a description of the album.
I feel like I’ve lived so many lives I can’t put it all together”
Sun Kil Moon – Garden of Lavender
I feel like this collection of eight songs encompass so many experiences and feelings to add to an already significant body of work that Kozelek must have lived many lives before this one and is struggling to make sense of his past, present and future through the medium of diaristic music. Each of the songs, with the exception of ‘Birds of Flims’, seem to lack a purpose, with no real story, point or takeaway at the end of the track. I wasn’t expecting an album that had a real theme or purpose, or even a cohesive piece of music that made sense from first to final track. It may be lazy to call ‘Universal Themes’ disconnected, inconsistent, illogical and weird however if you know Sun Kil Moon’s music you’ll know that to single out a particular body of it as such is a statement.
Folk and Tumble will be at Sun Kil Moon as part of the Open House Festival at the Marine Court Hotel, Bangor, Northern Ireland on 11th August 2015.
‘Universal Themes’ was released 2nd June 2015.