release date: Sep. 18, 2020
format: digital (10 x File, FLAC)
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,48]
producer: Mark Kozelek
label: Caldo Verde Records - nationality: USA
Track highlights: 1. "Angela" - 3. "The Johnny Cash Trail" - 5. "Long Slow Spring" - 7. "Lemon Balm" - 9. "Morning Cherry"
11th studio album credited Sun Kil Moon by solo artist Mark Kozelek following the album I Also Want to Die in New Orleans (Mar. 2019). In recent years, Mark usually releases new studio albums within frequent intervals of months instead of years, so this following 1½ years since his most recent album is a rare thing but also not quite true. Yes, it is his follow-up to his 2019 album as Sun Kil Moon; however, in 2019, 6 months after that, he released the collaboration album Joey Also Smiled (Oct. 2019) made with Petra Haden, and only 4 months succeeding that he released another collaboration album Mark Kozelek with Ben Boye and Jim White 2 (Feb. 2020), and another two months later [!] he released the Mark Kozelek solo album All the Best, Isaac Hayes (Apr. 2020) - so to think the man has slowed down on his production frenzy doesn't really relate to the whole picture.
Welcome to Sparks, Nevada consists of a regular number of 10 compositions but it comes with a total running time exceeding 92 minutes [!], which means it was physically issued in double CD format. The album doesn't fall far from many of the other releases he dominates that are all issued via his own label Caldo Verde, but there are always small variations, and overall, this one appears as a more quiet album held in gentle arrangements with strings, piano, acoustic guitars and with vocal harmonies all executed by Kozelek and his recent favourite musicians: Ben Boye, Chris Connolly, and Petra Haden. It's a mix of free spoken-word 'songs' in the stream of conscious-type-of-way he has turned to lately and some more traditionally structured songs. Thematically, it's one of his COVID-19 albums filled by subjective views on lock-down issues leaning towards irritation / wryness about restrictions and people dealing with the consequences of the whole situation. It's like many of his other post-Benji (2014) albums by containing fine moments and then not quite documenting his potential, and I guess that's really not the bet sales-argument to his recent discography but Kozelek is this live-persona, who both makes a great deal about not giving-a-f*!k about what people may think or feel and spending hours on expressing deep emotions and personal sensitive narratives in this Mark Kozelek-way that is extremely unique. So, whether you'll find it appealing or not, there's much to be found in his productions, I think.
Btw.: The front cover photo is credited Kozelek, which is his usual approach, but it's the first Sun Kil Moon album since the 2012 Among the Leaves to have an actual title on the front cover with letters indicating who made the album. Usually, albums by Kozelek are identified by one of his own photo-snaps.
