Few artists can carry an album with just a guitar in their hands. On Admiral Fell Promises, singer-songwriter Mark Kozelek plays completely solo on the nylon-string guitar; classical flourishes accompany novel-like passages of lost loves and foregone places, lending a stark and spiritual gravity to the latest songs from Sun Kil Moon's increasing (and impressive) catalog. To be clear, this music is not on trend. Indeed, there was nothing else released this year that could match Kozelek's private and singular intensity, and the music's sense of timelessness. That feeling elicited a sense of mystery that was difficult to describe, listen after listen.
The album's deep-set tone is established by opener "Alesund;" with its intricate classical fingerpicking, the song immediately pulls you in with its spacious, meditative introduction. The narrator then moves into epic introspection, reflecting on a muse that is both person and place, the Scandinavian beauty of the song's namesake. Other highlights include "Third and Seneca" (another road trip marked by the passage of time, place, and heartache), "You Are My Sun" (as lovely as anything The Beatles ever recorded), and "Admiral Fell Promises" (a private reassurance to a signature love).
When The D Man introduced Sun Kil Moon for my brother's 40th birthday party (a thrill I will never forget), I told the audience that "Mark's music compels listeners to contemplate their mortality, and moves listeners to become more wholly themselves." Admiral Fell Promises is no exception.
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