Music Review: Mark Kozelek

Over a twenty-year career, Mark Kozelek has established himself as one of the definitive singer-songwriters of his generation. As front man of legendary sad sacks Red House Painters, he was the lynchpin of the slowcore movement in alternative rock. Marrying slow, intense, dissonant and bleak instrumentation with harrowingly personal lyrics, Kozelek created music that really spoke to the experience of feeling pain and despair. Although he’s maintained his honest songwriting approach, Kozelek has diversified his music over time, experimenting with folk, classical and Spanish guitar under the moniker Sun Kil Moon, and he’s even covered songs from bands far removed from slow, introspective music. In 2001, he created an all AC/DC acoustic cover album, and in 2005 he released a Modest Mouse cover record, Tiny Cities. For an artist committed to trying new musical approaches, releasing another album of covers would be somewhat repetitive.

Like Rats, however, is different. Its collection of thirteen tracks is his most adventurous release in a while. The god of sadcore takes a host of metal, punk, classic-rock and pop songs and reinvents them into hypnotically melancholy folk ballads. Bruno Mars, Godflesh, Dayglo Abortions and Cher will never share the same track-list ever again. Not only does Kozelek bring these songs into the same sonic universe, his stark acoustic playing uncovers an emotional resonance and bleakness the originals lacked.

He opens with a chilling rendition of the Bad Brains classic “I.” The quick flamenco flourishes create all sorts of tension, and could fit seamlessly into his 2010 masterpiece Admiral Fell Promises. Godflesh’s “Like Rats” sees Kozelek at his angriest. The ferocity of the original is still there but now there’s an uneasy sense of impending doom, too. Bruno Mars’ “Young Girls” is stripped of its vapidity and given a quiet tenderness. But Kozelek saves the most impressive transformation for Dayglo Abortions’ “I Killed Mommy.” Stripped of its punk-metal veneer, we hear the song for what it is: sad, vulnerable and sinister.

Aside from these songs, the album unfortunately sounds monotonous after a couple of listens. There are no standout covers in the mold of previous albums’ “I’ll Be There” or “New Partner” and the emphasis on variety dilutes the album to a kind of grab bag. “13” and “Green Hell” fall just outside Kozelek’s individual reach: they require an expansive, full-band arrangement. Nevertheless, Kozelek is breathtaking in his ability to pull out the smallest meaning from a throw-away pop or punk song and expand it in the quietest, most achingly beautiful way. Although Like Rats isn’t his most consistent work, it’s an indicator of an artist, even at age 40, who’s still developing his sound.