ryan, i am BAFFLED by this album. or really more by its reception. Kozelek is--remains--my favorite artist, but i just can't see what's so special about this record. "Carissa" and "Micheline" are gorgeous, sure, but no more so (far as I can tell) than anything on April/Ghosts/Old Ramon/etc etc, and the rest just seems, to me, haphazard and ill-thought-through and plodding and hold on losing space...
(cont’d) basically my question here, posed in good faith & by someone who would be *thrilled* to hear a brand-new Kozelek masterpiece in 2014, is what exactly you see in this record, and in Kozelek’s new approach generally. i’m failing to find it, though i want to. (but again, i’ve teared up four times to “Carissa” in the last 24 hrs, so who knows, maybe i’ll come around to the rest of it, probably not though, i mean damn, that song where he inventories his sexual history? whoa.)
I’ll admit I’ve only done about three deep listens and some of the songs still haven’t clicked for me, but I’m also remembering how long half of April took to grab me. I’m probably not going to be able to answer your question about why the critical response to Benji has been so effusive because honestly I feel the exact same way about this record as I did about Among the Leaves - the good songs on it are absolutely stunning and the boring songs are boring and baffling and it would have been a better record without them. I think that maybe part of that critical response comes from the fact that it’s shorter and more focused than any of his records since Ghosts of the Great Highway. It’s more varied than Admiral Fell Promises but it’s less tossed-off than like three-quarters of Among the Leaves or any of his other ancillary releases and collabs. SO I’m also kind of confused because for me it’s Another Late-Period Mark Kozelek Record.
THAT BEING SAID - I really do love his sense of humor that he’s flexed since Among the Leaves and I think it balances his more morose tendencies really well and part of what’s so great about the record is how he has started to weave humor into the music itself as well (like in I Love My Dad and Ben’s My Friend for example). I think it really suits the more conversational tone he’s started to adopt and makes the heavy moments hit heavier. I think that the super long verse structure really suits Carissa and Ben’s My Friend and Richard Ramirez… and adds a forward momentum that his music often lacks. When this record clicks it feels like a satisfying realization of the sound he’s been working toward since Admiral Fell Promises. I mean Ghosts and April were profoundly different records and then the last three records have been Of A Piece (and to be quite honest I think the good songs on Among the Leaves still hit harder for me because right now my thoughts are more consumed with aging and irrelevance than family and death) and I think a lot of people just stopped paying attention to Mark Kozelek since April because his last few records have been so monochromatic and this one is easier to grab onto, more varied, and more compact.
