Album Review : Sun Kil Moon - Admiral Fell Promises
- Written by Andrew Schagen
“No, this is not my guitar,” sings Mark Kozelek on ‘Alesund’, the opening track of Admiral Fell Promises, and listening to the guitar work on the album you are more than inclined to believe him. The first thing that stands out about the new Sun Kil Moon album is the guitar work: completely acoustic and intricately picked out in true ‘classical guitar’ fashion – Kozelek sounds like an indie version of Julian Bream throughout the record.
One thing that remains reassuringly familiar though is Kozelek’s vocals. Despite having a very soft-sounding unobtrusive voice there is something very distinctive about his vocal work that will be immediately familiar to those who’ve had a shiver run down their spine from previous Sun Kil Moon records or from Kozelek’s prior incarnation in Red House Painters. Because the music is so stripped down, the intricately picked acoustic is almost the only instrument you’ll hear, the vocals are very noticeable and dominate the mood of each piece superbly. Many soft-voiced vocalists have a problem with just sounding a little bit weedy, but this isn’t an issue for Kozelek; despite the melodic tranquillity of his voice it’s given the space and the opportunity to really stand out. The sympathetic and skilful mixing and, in places, the multi-tracking of his voice makes this a wonderful listen, especially on headphones. Even the simplest and most straightforward lyrics such as ‘There by the blue, blue sea’ from the opening to the excellent ‘Sam Wong Hotel’ have an indescribably heart-breaking quality about them.
This is an album that is really only made up of two elements: expertly played acoustic guitar and soft yet powerful vocals. Both elements are easily described as superb so that must mean that it’s a superb record surely? Well, yes and no. If there is a problem to be found with Admiral Fell Promises, it is the lack of variety that is a consequence of each song being made up solely of these two elements. The tempo and pace of each song is more or less the same, the lyrics are mostly sketches of places and the feelings that they conjure up, there are no bad tracks but there aren’t really any standout tracks either. Don’t buy this record expecting to find the next ‘Grace Cathedral Park’ or ‘Summer Dress’.
Writing this review I am grateful for the fact that Muso’s Guide does not believe in giving simplistic ratings out of ten. What you will get out of Admiral Fell Promises will depend totally on what you look for in a record. If you can imagine sitting by a river’s bank on a summer’s day watching the gentle stream slip by and be content then this is a record for you. If you’d get bored and go off looking for waterfalls and rapids then you should probably look elsewhere.