Mark Kozelek Sings Favourites – Album Review by Killian Laher

A couple of years ago it seemed Mark Kozelek, whether as solo or Sun Kil Moon seemed to be in a state of repeating himself ad nauseam with endless acoustic guitar picking. Now, releasing an average of two albums per year, he has moved far away from this, incorporating electric guitar on last year’s Universal Themes, Jesu’s metal riffs on January’s Jesu/Sun Kil Moon and even spoken word (on Dreams of Childhood) late last year. Now he is joined by Desertshore’s Chris Connolly on piano without a guitar in sight for a covers album, with the emphasis very much on ‘middle of the road’.

Does anybody really need an album of piano covers by Mark Kozelek? It’s unlikely you’ll listen to it more than a couple of times. Virtually none of these covers improves on the original, though Float On stands out as the one true success here, as the treatment is radically different to the source material. Now an album of Kozelek songs, purely with voice and piano, that I would go for. He could even cover his own material, that would be kind of novel but this is… well the best I can say is forgettable and pointless. Much of the material is so familiar that it’s hard to see what grumpy Kozelek can bring to it. Anyhow, for Kozelek disciples it’s streaming here. 

Track List –

1. Send In The Clowns
2. Moon River
3. I’m Not In Love
4. Win
5. Mainstreet
6. Another Day
7. Somewhere Over The Rainbow
8. Amanda
9. Get Along Home Cindy
10. O Holy Night
11. Something Stupid
12. Float On

Win: