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Red House PaintersAlbums ReviewedDown Colorful Hill (1992)Red House Painters (Rollercoaster) (1993) Red House Painters (Bridge) (1993) Ocean Beach (1995) Songs For A Blue Guitar (1996) Old Ramon (2001) Rock 'n' Roll Singer (2000) What's Next To The Moon (2001) Ghosts of the Great Highway (2003) Down Colorful Hill(1992)San Francisco quartet the Red House Painters (named after Tennesseean painting crew, The International League Of Revolutionary House Painters) made their debut with this record, a release of the demo tapes they auditioned with for 4AD. Leader Mark Kozelek is often pigeon-holed as somewhat of a navel-gazing one-dimensional depressive, and most of the evidence in his catalogue to back this up can be found on Down Colorful Hill. It is certainly potent, but the lyrics are also a little clichéd and overwrought in places, and it's the same kind of self-pity that Morrissey lampooned in The Smiths. Kozelek would soon display a wider range of emotions on record, even though it's difficult to criticise this material too severely since it's genuinely expressive and largely autobiographical. Like much of Kozelek's catalogue, the album consists largely of slow, gently paced songs that echo the acoustic song craft of Nick Drake, or even Simon and Garfunkel, updated for the post-Nirvana musical landscape. The band doesn't tend to indulge in much flashiness, instead creating stately textures, although drummer Anthony Koutsos is inventive within the low key context. Kozelek's interesting sense of melody and phrasing and warm engaging voice are the group's main appeal. While Down Colorful Hill has enjoyed acclaim as the group's key record, it's a little too immature and unrefined to deserve this entirely. The key track, however, 'Medicine Bottle', does rightfully earn its place as one of the group's best tracks; it's still somewhat sophomoric ("no more breath in my hair/or ladies' underwear/tossed up over the alarm clock"), but it's totally engrossing, with Kozelek's half-whispered vocals some of the most intense ever committed to tape, and the lyrics describing addiction in an open manner. 'Japanese To English' is more straightforward, and it's just great songwriting with a strong melody and a succinct structure that contrasts with the more drawn out nature of the other tracks. Down Colorful Hill also starts out and ends strongly with '24' and 'Michael', two more personal acoustic tracks from Kozelek. The two problematic tracks are the title track, which is kind of monotonous and doesn't justify a ten minute running time, and 'Lord Kill The Pain', where the self-pity is so far over the top ("Drown everyone but me/so I can live peacefully") that it's surely an elaborate joke, in which case it just doesn't belong on what's otherwise just about the most serious album of all time. There's something disquieting about Down Colorful Hill, like reading someone's diary; it's somewhat unfocused and not proofread for public viewing, but it's often riveting and evocative. It's not the Red House Painters' best record, but it has a feel that's different from their later work, and in any case the sheer fact that it contains 'Medicine Bottle' makes it all but essential for fans. 
Red House Painters (Rollercoaster)(1993)This is the first of two self titled albums that the group released in 1993; it's also referred to as Rollercoaster due to the cover image. LPs were still just around when this was released, making it a double album (fitting on one CD); it's more diluted and not as raw and incisive as Down Colorful Hill, but it's markedly more mature and there's some absolutely sublime material here. There are a clutch of uninteresting songs in the middle that drag it down and stop it from reaching a perfect score, but regardless this album has spent more time in my player this year than any other, and it's the seminal work of the early Painters period. Stylistically, it's more ornate than its predecessor, with a more produced sound and more instrumentation, and it's also slightly more diverse, even if most of the album is still devoted to low key introspective material. Setting the mood is the gorgeous opener 'Grace Cathedral Park', a melodic piece that brings the Nick Drake comparisons back to the fore. 'Katy Song' is one of the group's best known songs, and it's another delicate and heartfelt ballad ("You've got some kind of family there/And that's more than I could ever give you"). 'Mistress' appears in two different guises; in the fourth track as an aggressive rocker, and in the fourth to last track as a minimalist piano ballad. 'New Jersey' was improved as a full band arrangement on the next record, but the acoustic version is still strong, while the pretty 'Dragonflies' is another winner. The controversial pieces are the two epics at the end of the album; the thirteen minute 'Mother' is interesting enough to warrant its length and retain attention, but it's not chief among the album's highlights. 'Strawberry Hill' is melodramatic but still highly effective, getting a lot of mileage out of the lengthy two chord verses opening into a lush harmonised chorus ("It's our duty/As Californians"). If this album was stripped down to fifty minutes, with a couple of songs from the concurrent self-titled album slipped in, it would easily rank among my all time favourites. But even in this more lengthy form, it's still essential listening and arguably the Painters' finest album.
 Red House Painters (Bridge)(1993)Released later in 1993, and consisting of outtakes from the previous self-titled album, this self-titled record is referred to as Bridge due to its cover image. Inevitably, it's somewhat slight compared to its predecessor, with only eight songs, including two covers and one a reworking of 'New Jersey' from the preceding album. The best songs here, however, deserve full album status and more exposure than just winding up as EP tracks; while Bridge is arguably the weakest Painters album, it still has its share of highlights. In fact it was the first Painters album I heard, leading me to think that since I enjoyed it, then I may as well pick up the others; in its own terms, it's perfectly passable, but in comparison with their other albums it does lack diversity and it's one of their least strong batches of songs. Highlights include the melancholic 'Uncle Joe', where Kozelek exhibits a mostly closeted humour as he weaves the group's name into the bridge ("I am not very well read/And did you say that I will lose my house/And can you spare me of my pain/And can you spare me of my tears"), and the full band version of 'New Jersey', which is a marked improvement over the earlier acoustic version. The reworked cover of Simon and Garfunkel's 'I Am A Rock' is also effective, and 'Bubble' is a nice low key piece. Indeed, most of these songs are perfectly enjoyable but as a whole it's just a hodgepodge of Red House Painters songs and doesn't stand up as well as their other releases; it's unambitious, and one gets the feeling that Kozelek could crank out this type of material relatively easily. Other points worthy of mention include the cover of 'Star Spangled Banner', which isn't very interesting, and the intense screaming at the end 'Blindfold' is very uncharacteristic but unique in the band's catalogue. It's hard to argue other than that Bridge is among the lesser works of Kozelek's oeuvre, but if you enjoy his other work there's still plenty to like here too.
Ocean Beach(1995)Named after a San Francisco landmark, Ocean Beach is perhaps the most coherent and ordered Red House Painters record, most of the tracks sharing a sombre and acoustic mood, more hopeful and less desperate than before. 'Over My Head' is almost goofy in its comfort ("Sometimes you get so alone without a friend/It's hard to know who you are and to pretend"), it's almost hard to believe that it came from the same pen that wrote 'Medicine Bottle' just three years earlier. Musically it's scaled down, more conventionally melodic and lacking the epic experimental tracks like 'Mother' and 'Down Colorful Hill'. Because of these factors, it's a good place to start with the band's catalogue; is some ways, it's kind of Red House Painters-lite, but it's also Red House Painters-consistent. The beautiful 'Summer Dress' is up alongside 'Grace Cathedral Park' as the group's most perfect short song, perfectly augmenting its elegant melody and simple arrangement with a viola part. 'San Geronimo' is a magical tale of adolescent remembrance ("Somewhere up fifteen miles/Sifting through crackling vinyl"), although the dirty guitar tone hardly detracts from the song's inherent prettiness. A piano leads the simple 'Shadows', while the light hearted 'Over My Head' devolves into an enjoyable acoustic jam. The closing 'Drop' takes simplicity to an extreme, stretching out for nine minutes, sustained by the elegant melody and the emotion in Kozelek's vocal. Ocean Beach doesn't have as many absolute highlights as Rollercoaster, but it's constructed better as an album; while I play Rollercoaster more often, I tend to pick out individual songs to play, while when I listen to Ocean Beach, I play it right through.
Songs For A Blue Guitar(1996)Although Songs For A Blue Guitar is credited to the Painters, realistically it's all but a Kozelek solo album. As well as using musicians from outside the band, Songs For A Blue Guitar is markedly lighter in tone and content, even compared to Ocean Beach, with many of the songs centring around gentle acoustic arrangements. It's also more loosely constructed; many of the songs lope over five minutes, and a couple of the electric tracks crack the ten minute mark. Songs For A Blue Guitar also features three covers, which further lighten the tone; Yes's 'Long Distance Runaround', The Cars' 'All Mixed Up' and Wings' 'Silly Love Songs' are all given the Kozelek treatment. The combination of the covers, the unhurried feel of the songs and the loose unfocused feeling give Songs For A Blue Guitar a very likeable atmosphere; it's far from flawless, but it's enjoyable all the same. In fact, the only song that really needs adjustment is the eleven minute cover of 'Silly Love Songs', which should have been dropped altogether; it's not irritatingly perky like the McCartney version, but its only real interest is the novelty of the saccharine lyrics set against the grinding and solemn electric arrangement. By way of contrast, the other long track, the twelve minute 'Make Like Paper', is the album's highlight. Showing a hitherto untapped Neil Young influence, which would be far more evident in 2003's Sun Kil Moon debut, Kozelek throws in an avant-garde guitar solo and a killer riff that is withheld to halfway through the track, to elevate an already catchy song and make it completely different from anything else in his catalogue. 'Long Distance Runaround' spirals into a thrashy jam, which makes the song well worth keeping, even if the vocal section isn't particularly invigorating. 'All Mixed Up' is a total success, transformed into a yearning ballad, complete with female vocal backing. With the exception of the brief and bouncy 'I Feel The Rain Fall', the rest of the album is devoted to languid acoustic material, with the opening 'Have You Forgotten?' and 'Revelation Big Sur' particular highlights. 'Another Song For A Blue Guitar' references Led Zeppelin with the line "I ripped off the chords/From 'Bron Y Aur." Songs For A Blue Guitar doesn't quite rank among the best Painters albums, as it's somewhat sloppy and self-indulgent in places, but it's enjoyable nevertheless and it's a fair bet that fans will spin this repeatedly.
Old Ramon(2001)The final Red House Painters album was recorded during 1997 and 1998, but wasn't released until 2001, due to complications arising from label mergers. After hearing it, it's not entirely surprising that it was the last album to come from the Painters camp; it's far from a disgrace, but it's often tired and starting to look like Kozelek was running out of ideas and needed a fresh approach to liven up the creative process. It also feels like something of a hodgepodge, recorded in six different studios and using a variety of musicians from outside the group. Of the previous albums, it is probably closest to the more mature and relaxed Songs For A Blue Guitar, but it has a tone of resignation and a lack of colour that's not present on its predecessor. It's still ballad heavy, but it lacks the effortless breeziness of pretty acoustic tracks like 'Priest Alley Song', and some of the songs go on for a long time without making much impression. At ten songs spread over seventy minutes, it's too diffuse to be effective as a holistic work, even if it has plenty of moments of creativity and beauty. The disc's worst offenders are the drawn out and monotonous pair of 'Void' and 'Cruiser'; the former starts off prettily with a melodic verse, but drags interminably with an unimaginative chorus and rote guitar riff. The album also gets off to an uncertain start with cat tribute 'Wop-A-Din-Din'; musically it's substantial enough, and it's more dignified than say, Queen's 'Delilah', but it definitely adds to the fragmentary nature of the record. On the other hand, the more aggressive tracks, the textural guitar assault of 'Byrd Joel' and the dissonant riff of 'Between Days', make one speculate about how much better this album could have been if Kozelek tossed off the sleepy stuff and tried to write an entire album of rock oriented material. Still, between those two songs, the excellent epic 'River', which is easily Kozelek's best ten minute plus effort, and the beautiful 'Smokey', at least half of the album is filled with A-grade material, so it's difficult to make too many complaints. The disjointed and even sometimes lazy nature of Old Ramon means it's definitely not the place to start, but it has its share of great Painters moments nevertheless.
Mark KozelekRock 'n' Roll Singer(2000)While waiting for Old Ramon to be released, Kozelek dabbled in films, appearing as the bass player in Almost Famous and in a cameo role in Vanilla Sky. He also created a pair of short and reasonably light-hearted solo discs. Because Rock 'n' Roll Singer, the first of these, has only seven tracks, four of which are covers, it naturally assumes a relatively minor place in the Kozelek discography, yet it's surprisingly enjoyable all the same. Most of these songs are solo acoustic tracks, and all of these songs are relatively short; the only full band arrangement is the cover of AC/DC on the title track. In total, three of these songs are AC/DC covers, a concept which would be stretched to a full album on the following year's What's Next To The Moon. Cover's almost an inaccurate term for these songs; while the lyrics are mostly intact, the music is rewritten to gentle folk arrangements. Compared with the versions on What's Next To The Moon, this version of 'Bad Boy Boogie' is less effective at a lower pitch, but the full band version of 'Rock 'n' Roll Singer' here is more memorable than the acoustic rendition. The cover of John Denver's 'Around and Around' is also pretty, while all of Kozelek's originals are strong, especially the opening picking of 'Find Me, Ruben Olivares' and the old woman sympathy of 'Ruth Marie'. It's hard to know what to rate Rock 'n' Roll Singer, since it's merely seven short tracks, but it's an excellent EP all the same, and if you can find it at a reasonable price, don't hesitate to pick it up.
What's Next To The Moon(2001)The AC/DC covers on Rock and Roll Singer were accomplished, so it's hardly surprising that the Kozelek decided to make an entire album of reworkings. All ten tracks on What's Next To The Moon are drawn from the Bon Scott 1970s era of AC/DC, and are recorded solo on acoustic guitar with minimal overdubs. Like the interpretations on Rock and Roll Singer, these songs feature completely rewritten melodies, even if the title track is the bluesiest number in Kozelek's catalogue and a concession to the source material. This treatment provides an interesting insight into the relationship between lyrics and arrangements; stripped of their hard rock bluster and transported into gentle folk tunes, the woman-conquering, hard-living lyrics become poignant and pleading rather than brash and arrogant. 'Bad Boy Boogie' wasn't that impressive on Rock and Roll Singer, but here it's transported into a higher and more vulnerable pitch, which makes all the difference, the lines "I tell you a story/It ain't no lie/I was born to love till the day I die" beautiful and affecting in a way you'd never expect an AC/DC composition to be. The bluesy title track helps to break up what could otherwise be an overly uniform record, although plenty of the low key folk tunes like "Love At First Feel' and 'Love Hungry Man' are just plain gorgeous. It's still a little too samey to rank among Kozelek's very best work, but it's a tight and concise record, and I'm sure AC/DC fans will enjoy hearing these songs re-explored in a surprisingly reverent context as well.
Sun Kil MoonGhosts of the Great Highway(2003)It may seem slightly strange that Kozelek would choose to create a new band at this point in his career, especially given that Koutsos is still on board and that Red House Painters regular Jerry Vessel also guests, yet despite the similarity in personnel this record is different enough in tone to his previous band to warrant its own name. If anything, perhaps this name change should have occurred before Songs For A Blue Guitar, as this album feels like a continuation of that, but with a more consistent feel and entirely penned by Kozelek. The self absorption of the early Painters is all but gone, and the musical style has shifted from slowcore to straddling between Neil Young-like country rock and Neil Young-like grunge. This Neil Young comparison is all but inevitable, especially when Kozelek often uses his high register. Considering that Old Ramon was completed in 1998, and that his solo EPs consisted mostly of covers, Kozelek had five years to write this album and it shows; this is easily his most consistent and accessible set of songs. The central tracks are the autobiographical 'Carry Me Ohio', where Kozelek touchingly ruminates on his bond with his home state, and the fourteen minute 'Duk Koo Kim', where a hypnotic riff drives a tribute to a Vietnamese boxer. Boxing is a repeated theme of Ghosts of the Great Highway, with the opening line of the first track 'Glenn Tipton' stating that "Cassius Clay was hated more than Sonny Liston" and the boxing lyrics of 'Salvador Sanchez' recycled in the acoustic closer 'Pancho Villa'. The aggressive 'Salvador Sanchez' and 'Lily and Parrots' provide the most adrenaline, while the middle sequence of 'Last Tide', 'Floating' and 'Gentle Moon' is full of beauty. In short, Ghosts of the Great Highway is Kozelek's most consistent, most approachable and simply best record yet, and even if you were turned off by his navel gazing in his earlier work it's well worth hearing.
Twin Cities(2005)Don't have this one yet because it's pretty hard to find in New Zealand and I don't want to spend heaps importing an album that's kind of short and not supposed to be that great. It's an entire album of Modest Mouse covers, although it has been released under the Sun Kil Moon name. |
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Written 2001-2007, Graham Fyfe
