release date: May 12, 2009
format: digital (14 x File, MP3)
[album rate: 4 / 5] [3,84]
producer: Mark Kozelek
label: Caldo Verde Records - nationality: USA
Track highlights: 1. "Unlit Hallway" - 2. "Carry Me Ohio" - 3. "Four Fingered Fisherman" - 5. "Salvador Sanchez" - 8. "Tiny Cities" - 9. "Lucky Man" - 10. "Send in the Clowns" - 12. "Tonight in Bilbao" - 14. "Katy Song"
Live album by Mark Kozelek released between two Sun Kil Moon studio albums: April (Apr. 2008) and Admiral Fell Promises (Jul. 2010). Most recently, however, Kozelek also released the live EP 7 Songs Belfast (Jul. 2008), and, on a whole, Kozelek's discography doesn't appear to lack live releases. From 2001 to 2014, he has released no less than (approx.) 16 solo live albums.
Lost Verses - Live consists of 14 tracks with a total running time of 74 minutes with songs recorded from seven concerts between 2007 and 2008. More precisely, it's mostly two concerts from Kozelek's European tour recorded Nov. 2007 - the first in Gothenburg, Sweden, and the second is from Lisbon, Portugal. The remaining five live recordings are from concerts across the USA between Apr. and Nov. 2008. As usual, Kozelek has included some cover songs - here limited to two by Modest Mouse (tracks #3 and #8) and the classic "Send in the Clowns" by Stephen Sondheim. Kozelek's own compositions are mainly tracks released under the name of Sun Kil Moon, either made with the band or for later albums under the same name but while performing as a solo artist, but there has also been room for songs from his time with the band Red House Painters, as there are tracks released under his own name.
All recordings mostly sounds like renderings of Kozelek's solo performances, and maybe that's the whole point, although Red House Painters' guitarist Phil Carney is credited as guitarist, and the recordings also come from tours where Carney supported Kozelek in Europe as well as in the States, and he doesn't appear on all fourteen tracks.
With this, Kozelek documents his abilities as songwriter, as vocalist, as guitarist, and not least as a skilled storyteller. Due to the sparse instrumentation, it's in a quiet and perhaps somewhat introverted domain, but the compositions and the performances are definitely not flawed.
Lost Verses - Live is a super fine and highly recommended album from a most gifted songwriter.
[ PopMatters, Sputnikmusic 4 / 5, Pitchfork 3,5 / 5 stars ]
