The Undisputeds: Sun Kil Moon - Ghosts of the Great Highway

Sun Kil Moon
Ghosts of the Great Highway
2003 Jetset Records (reissued in 2007 on Caldo Verde Records)

Sun Kil Moon is a project created by prolific songwriter Mark Kozelek, who had previously led the group Red House Painters and continues to release music both under his own name and the Sun Kil Moon moniker. His sound is unmistakable. He’s an understated singer, and his cadence and oft-brilliant arrangements work together to create moods both harrowing and beautiful.

There’s a longing soul behind the words and music, a soul very evident on Sun Kil Moon’s first release, Ghosts of the Great Highway. Kozelek rarely thinks forward, choosing instead to direct his writing towards discussion of the past. He paints pictures of past feelings and events in his life, not necessarily as a wish that these days return, but as a remembrance and as an appreciation of the good and bad. He’s fully aware that past is past, which makes his music more relatable and more poignant. Ghosts of the Great Highway brings us into Kozelek’s past, but also ours; moments large and small, triumphant and regretful, are conjured by his words and music and the feelings they generate.

The opener, “Glenn Tipton”, sets the brilliant tone for the album. With soft guitar, Kozelek sings about watching Clark Gable films on late-night cable, and how his father once liked to do the same:

Just like my dad did when he was home; /
Staying up late, staying up alone

He continues his remembrances, thinking back on an old flame:

I buried my first victim when I was nineteen; /
Went through her bedroom and the pockets of her jeans. /
And found her letters that said so many things that really hurt me bad. /
I never breathed her name again, /
But I like to dream about what could have been.

Kozelek’s ability to easily articulate feelings we’ve all experienced without resorting to clichés is perhaps his biggest strength.

He often employs the tactic of finding a nice melody and playing on that for an extended period; witness “Carry Me Ohio”, the second track. Numerous verses stretch out over six and a half minutes, but it’s never boring. Like Bob Dylan, Kozelek is able to confidently and strongly repeat ideas and themes, due to the ingenuity of his lyrics and the beauty of his music.

Kozelek finds boxers to be of particular interest, and three of the tracks on Ghosts of the Great Highway recall the lives of noted fighters. The third track on the album, “Salvador Sanchez”, uses a much grungier guitar riff, similar to something from Neil Young. Kozelek squeals over the booming guitar about different boxers who perished in the ring:

Have they gone, fell by leather,
So alone, but bound together.

An extended distorted guitar solo punctuates the tales of their poor fates.

A suite of sorts follows, with three-minute “Last Tide” bleeding into “Floating”. Both move back to the album’s initial motif of understated guitar pieces, and provide more great-sounding music. Stringed instruments are employed to add more weight to the already-strong proceedings.

Kozelek’s vocals are forceful enough to be noticed and appreciated while listening, but they’re soft enough to allow the listener to trail off into their own thoughts. It’s hard not to get wrapped up in thinking about your own experiences while listening to Ghosts of the Great Highway, which is one of the album’s many strengths and treasures.

“Gentle Moon” picks up where “Floating” left off, with more pretty guitars and lyrics. The verses function as a plea for some force to help those who need it:

Smile down on us sun, show your rays /
When things come undone… /
Rain, fall and voice sound, for those of whom, /
Still are not found

This all works back into a soaring, atmospheric chorus, keeping the album moving at its dizzying pace.

Things get a touch abrasive and grounded with “Lily and Parrots”, which is the most straight-ahead rocker on this album. It moves into the album’s centerpiece, the swirling epic “Duk Koo Kim”, an ode to another boxer who died after a fight with Ray “Boom Boom” Mancini. The song clocks in at fourteen minutes; the number of rounds Kim lasted in his final match, and is like an album to itself. It features several distinct movements and pieces. Kim’s untimely death is used as a device to explain how our ends can happen anytime, and how chaotic and senseless things are. The genteel arrangement eventually opens up into a droning, wondrous maelstrom; loud and forceful but never hard on the ears. “Duk Koo Kim” is the album’s masterpiece; a 14 ½ minute epic journey that never loses steam or gets boring.

After that, the album’s final two songs take things down a notch and allow the listener to breathe. “Si Paloma” is an excellent instrumental song; there aren’t many secrets under its surface, but it’s a joy to hear, with Spanish-sounding guitar and flourishes. The album’s final track, “Pancho Villa”, is a reworking of “Salvador Sanchez”, with the same lyrics but a different structure and tempo. It is a strong closer, building on and punctuating what came before and sending us off with another beautiful listen.

I’ve never heard another artist who so easily evokes and rouses distant personal memories and images than on Ghosts of the Great Highway. The music and Kozelek’s lyrics work together to create a sort of sonic time machine, and then they create the perfect soundtrack for that experience. It’s that feeling of bittersweet nostalgia the album creates, in addition to the overall strength of the music, which makes the album so great. Listening to it can be an exhilarating affair.

John Lacey