Whether you’re a fan of Red House Painters/Mark Kozelek/Sun Kill Moon or a soon-to-be fan (yep, those are the only two choices), you’ve got to admit the guy possesses a special voice, so smooth it can melt the cheese over your burger and so distinctive you’d know who it was even in a crowded club with smoke fogging the air and conversations muddling the sound.
Kozelek also enjoys covers, and lots of them, from Modest Mouse, to AC/DC to fuggin’ “SEND IN THE CLOWNS” fer crissakes. And that’s good, because he jams his own red-hot brand onto the skin of the originals. It might singe a little if you’re used to hearing the song a certain way, but for those of us who trust Kozelek’s vision it adds up to a whole new, brilliant tune.
Admiral Fell Promises is unique to my ears mostly by force of its extremely beautiful guitar lines, sprinkled delicately throughout the record like twinkling stars atop the sky, sparkling and gentle and loving and genuine and AHHHHHHHHHH, just so Worthy of attention.
Many of the sections almost remind me of the soundtrack to Heaven’s Gate (composed by one David Mansfield and full of solo guitar compositions and stirring full-orchestra renditions of the main theme) with their intricately picked passages and gentle, unassuming air. Kozolek’s in no hurry to play/pick up a storm, and as you drift with his arrangements you’ll become at-one with them sheerly because it feels good to.
Check out the lyrics below, the video above and the text all around you and me thinks you’ll find a reason to give praise, either to an all-powerful being above, to Gumshoe or to Kozelek himself.
“Admiral Fell Promises” lyrics:
Come out from the burning fire butterfly
Let me lock you in my room and keep you
For a while
Could you be the answer to my every prayer?
Could you be the one for who I care?
Come into my arms and let your worries die
Come out from the web of all your tangles lies
But be true to me and I’ll be true to you
Judge me not for what I’ve done but what I’ll do
A million nights have led
To this one that we are spending
And I know it’s better here
Than anywhere I’ve been going
With every morning grew
A void more wide and endless
Come out from the burning fire butterfly
Let me lock you in my room and keep you
For a while
You watch over me and I’ll watch over you
And if you go tomorrow choke me ’till I’m blue
A thousand days have passed
In this house she and I were sharing
And I hate myself for it
But I have stopped caring
The Marilyn sky tonight
Is so black and blue and beautiful
