Ghosts of the Great Highway

Fans of Mark Kozelek who have yet to sit down with a Sun Kil Moon recording may be pleased to know that it's not really a big departure from his previous projects, except that Ghosts Of The Great Highway contains no cover songs. Though Kozelek has a penchant for reworking other people's tunes, everything here is original and beautifully heartbreaking — especially "Carry Me Ohio." It's so equally pretty and powerful, you just might wish it were longer than six minutes and 21 seconds as it mixes rich, vintage, guitar tones with innovatively detuned arpeggios and elongated, unpredictable and sometimes angular guitar solos — all contrasted nicely with Kozelek's mellow baritone that slips into momentary falsetto parts, sounding as easy on the ears as any of Neil Young's classics. Kozelek's lyrics throughout are meditative, as in the acoustic opener "Glen Tipton" where from verse to verse he remembers his father staying up late watching television alone, a bygone friend who ran a donut shop, and the first time he ever destroyed a girl's heart. "Duk Koo Kim" is a bewitching epic that doesn't lose any of its magic during its 14 minute and 32 second entirety.