Ok, the first 90 will not be in order, that would just be pointless. Inventive title I know. Some reviews will be short, some will be long, depends on how much I care when I'm writing. I might go back and lengthen reviews upon whim or request. Let's get this started. NO ORDER FOR FIRST 90!
100: April-Sun Kil Moon
The opening track on April is one of the most beautifully autumnal songs I've ever heard. It's gentle but persistent beat, soft, slightly jangly melody and subtle lyrical references to the Bay Area make it a very special song to me. Mark Kozelek has said that the song is about the character from his Red House Painters song Katy. I got the impression that Katy is a ghost watching over her old loved ones from the fog.
Quote:
They fill the foggy day
They hide the hills away
That steal our time
They are the picturesque night
The casting city lights
On the bay flowing into the ocean glowing
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The rest of the album doesn't quite reach such heights, but Moorestown is almost as good, just as deeply personal, again using very specific imagery of real places where Kozelek found love and lost it.
Quote:
She moved away to Williamsburg
Her eyes sad as a raven
My thoughts will pause, my throat will swell
When her name is spoken
And looking past the cold, long sea
I cannot bear to wonder now
If the cascading soft lights
Are glowing for us in Moorestown
Are glowing for us in Moorestown
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The only other song that really stands out from the pack is Heron Blue, which uses it's medieval atmosphere to describe the experience of watching a Heroin addict die in front of you.
Quote:
Don't play those violins no more
Their melancholic overtones
They echo off the floor and walls
I cannot bear to hear them
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As a whole many of the songs are connected, all in theme and some with specific stories. It seems like, as a whole, the album is a bit too musically safe, and the only times it really takes off the ground is when there is risk taking involved. That being said there isn't a song I don't like, and there are several I love. Recommended to anyone who doesn't hate music.
Favorite lyric: Her walls are Mediterranean blue
Her baby sister picked the hue
Saltwater taffy, Jersey shore
Blue like the fingernails she wore
Favorite song: Lost Verses