For many years I worked in jobs centered around daily deadlines, where at a certain time of each day I had to pick up my pace and finish. Sometimes I would linger longer than I should, turning the final portion of the workday into a reckless sprint, and this experience has left me weary of dawdlers.<\/p>\n
I note this only because this personality trait (deficiency?) has affected my view of Among the Leaves, Sun Kil Moon\u2019s latest effort, in a manner that has nothing to do with musical artistry. While there are spirited lyrics and meaningful notions throughout the album, it never stirs above a contemplative whisper, giving the record\u2019s 17 songs in 73 minutes the feel of being stuck behind a tractor on the expressway. Is it possible \u2014 possible \u2014 to go a little faster?<\/p>\n
None of this is too surprising, as SKM\u2019s Mark Kozelek has for years made this music project one geared with molasses instead of motor oil, eschewing pace for plodding. But Among the Leaves takes this to new levels, as many of the songs feature Kozelek singing solo against the plinking of a nylon stringed guitar. The songs with a bit of violin, banjo or drums are kept firmly in the background, allowing Kozelek to keep the focus on him even when a sonic departure could better alter the scenery.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ll give him this \u2013 his lyrics can entertain even if the music doesn\u2019t, though he\u2019s one sad fucking dude. A murmurer in the past, Kozelek is easy to discern on Leaves, whether he\u2019s lamenting the state of his audience (\u201cMy band played here a lot in the 90s when we had lots of female fans, and fuck they all were cute\/ Now I just sign posters for guys in tennis shoes\u201d), infidelity (\u201cOK, so I brought home a little sting from a girl who didn\u2019t mean anything) and of course Denmark (\u201cDenmark, Denmark\/ Everyone\u2019s white, everybody rides bikes\u201d). The lyrical highlight comes in \u201cTrack Number 8,\u201d where he admits the song \u201cain\u2019t great\u201d and that songwriting is hard \u2013 it\u2019s an elegant turning of tables.<\/p>\n
But there\u2019s a point where lyrics are not enough, where the music must try to meet the mastery of words. For every \u201cSunshine in Chicago,\u201d where Kozelek dour lyrics are brightened by a perky guitar and playful delivery, there are three \u201cThe Moderately Talented Yet Attractive Young Woman vs. the Exceptionally Talented Yet Not So Attractive Middle Aged Man\u201d (yeah, I know), where a typical musical arrangement (in this case the waltz) is performed in unremarkable fashion. \u201dThe Winery\u201d features flamenco (flamenco on a nylon guitar? Soooo original), while marathon songs \u201cYoung Love\u201d and \u201cBlack Kite\u201d repeat and repeat and repeat a swirling of nylon strings.<\/p>\n
My album quota for nylon guitar dominance is four songs, so I can admit maybe I\u2019m not the person for this review. But is anyone up for 17 songs of nylon guitar? Admit it, the most you could take is six. Kozelek has plenty to say in Among the Leaves, it\u2019s just too bad he labors for so long to say it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
For many years I worked in jobs centered around daily deadlines, where at a certain time of each day I had to pick up my pace and finish. Sometimes I would linger longer than I should, turning the final portion of the workday into a reckless sprint, and this experience has left me weary of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1232,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[317,316],"class_list":["post-1230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-review","tag-among-the-leaves","tag-sun-kil-moon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1230"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1230\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1233,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1230\/revisions\/1233"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}