Customer Reviews

Down Colorful Hill

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

When I first bought this CD, I was actually pretty angry that it only had six songs. However, several of those songs are quite long, and so at least in terms of length, you don't get the feeling of just listening to an EP. It's also a concept album, even more than the other RHP records, because it is probably the most concentrated on one issue: emotional breakdown.

The album begins by taking apart the issue of growing older and dealing with the anxiety of losing youth. Then, you get two tracks both concentrating on the difficulties of effectively communicating emotion to a lover in a very intense relationship and the consequences involved. "Down Colorful Hill" is at the heart of the album and sums up the desperation Kozelek feels in his "prayers for success". (This could possibly mean the success of his career, as well, but more than likely it's just success in general.) "Lord Kill the Pain" is a very sarcastic song that wishes the rest of the world would just die so Kozelek wouldn't have to deal with anyone or anything anymore. The real genius of the album comes in with the closer "Michael", which is perhaps the most touching song, lyrically, I have ever come across. In it, Kozelek recounts his youthful experiences with his friend who ended up become a worthless bum many years after their friendship. For Kozelek to label such a person as his "best friend" shows an insight into human love that most people, let alone musicians, don't have the capacity for.

I fell in love with the lyrics of this album first, and then slowly I came to love the music. I don't know if it's the best place to start if you're trying to get into RHP, though. I think Rollercoaster or Retrospective are probably the best places to start. I highly recommend DOWN COLORFUL HILL to the already-interested RHP/Kozelek fans.

This album may appear short, but it is far too dense to be any longer. Were there one more song your heart would break. I don't think there is another album in my rather substantial collection that carries the emotional weight that Down Colorful Hill does.

While many of RHPs songs are vignettes, moments in time, I feel Down Colorful Hill contains their best cinematic work - songs which meander from melancholy to resigned, and a lot of other territory as well. "24" opens with the plaintif "So it's not/Loaded stadiums/Or ballparks..." the ambitions of a life not quite fulfilled stated so simply, how could one not identify with it? The disc proceeds through the epic "Medicine Bottle," an experiment in song structure that works amazingly well. Each of the other tracks is equally rewarding, though some may take time to appreciate in their own right.

A beautiful, beautiful work, well worth listening to.

Re-released by 4AD, Down colorfull hill is a beautiful recording, expressive, yet extremely sad. In my oppinion Mark's darkest lyrics. "Japenese to English" the most taking of all.For new RHP fans, Mark's voice is higher than in the currently released SONGS FOR A BLUE GUITAR. I highly recomed this disc.

His soul plays the quitar, His heart sings the lyrics. No pretension, No excuses, no fear, just pure truth.
He graciously and honestly shares with us his intimate, and personal life memories and experiences. He tells us of his delicate observations of others that come into his life through a lover or a friend. Many songs are of lost loves, heartbreak and lost friends, because Mark writes about the stuff of life that really matters. True to his passion and dedicated to his gift, with no compromises. I honor and thank him for the music he has given to us all. I am also grateful for the time I shared with him. The heartache that followed eventually became overshadowed by the joy of just being able to know him.
Down Colorful Hill is my favorite of all RHP cd's. Some favored songs are Michael, Medicine Bottle, Uncle Joe, Lord Kill the Pain, Katy Song, etc..etc, and all solo guitar. Amazing.
Most beloved songs ....New Jersey and Trailways, of course! ....

I bought this cd for a dollar from a bargain bin at a bookstore on a whim. I hadn't ever heard of the RHP and I didn't even listed to the cd until about week after I purchased it. I finally decided to listed to it one morning as I was getting ready for work and it just stopped me in my tracks. I was completely blown away! The last time I had felt like that when I first heard a cd was Janes Addiction Ritual. Even though there are only 6 songs on this album (and the last 3 songs are only mediocre) it is still one of my top ten favorites albums. The first three songs are all around 10 minutes long are definately the RHP masterpieces. Great, great stuff! As far as the other RHP albums go, I would say each one loses about half a star if you go in order by date of release. All of them are worth getting though and each contain some or their best. Mark Kozeleks solo album is worth checking out also.

The joys and sorrows of life, through their shaping of experience, bring an enrichment that offers substance and meaning to human existence in a brilliant form of dynamics which enhances the sensation and impact of each extreme. These experiences define our lives in the struggle for understanding our inner and outer world, as we shift between shadows in pursuit of something to believe in enough to hold onto until our grip is eternally weakened by forces of inevitability. To freeze'frame these moments as to last us a lifetime is to keep alive the spirit of long lost dreams, faded hopes, passionate yearnings, and departed lovers. This embrace of life's beautiful melancholy, in conjunction with a realization of life's awakenings, shapes the essence of the Red House Painters song.

"it's not that simple
this dictionary never has a word
for the way i'm feeling
it's nothing plain for me"

Down Colorful Hill, the 1992 debut release of the San Franciscan act, is a collection of subtly remixed demo songs, slow and sad incantations of isolation and misery along with seemingly undying funeral marches serving as glimpses of reluctantly accepted realizations, laments for faded love, and dreams lost to the merciless fading of time. Mark Kozelek's introspective poetic lyrics are strikingly vivid and almost painfully vulnerable, reflectively melancholic like his beautifully expressive singing that carries a strange sense of open mystery, harmonically enhancing the nostalgic quality of the delicate acoustic and clean tone guitar melodies. Cautious guitars of slow, repetitive, almost religiously droning chords and minimalist rhythms drive sparse songs that act more as requiems expiring in realms of hazy timeframes, building gradually in theme and intensity before threatening to ascend in a swirling vortex. From this, faintly disconcerting atmospheres of quiescent faze develop to obscure divisions between sadness and elation. The gentle beauty of this music is stunningly effective, merging the warmth of life's joy and voids of despair as one unified experience in the wholeness of existence.

In "24", Kozelek comes to terms with the realities of aging, singing "and I thought at fifteen that I'd have it down by sixteen, and twenty'four keeps breathing in my face, like a mad whore..". This acknowledgment of existential transience and its inescapable condition reflects the invincibility of youth succumbing to the understanding and acceptance of the inevitabilities of mortality which ultimately increase the appreciation of life towards a greater potential for meaning. Elsewhere, "Medicine Bottle" is a bitter, exhaustive recount of failed love and Kozelek's collapse into the despair of "not wanting to die out here, without you". The title track is a dreamlike march unfolding in splendid form, eventually settling into the kind of sedation typically felt after the rise and fall of desperate passion. The calling remembrance of a long lost friend in "Michael" brilliantly portrays the heartfelt sincerity that would become the most significant current defining all of Kozelek's work.

"i do not want to lose
the thrill that it gives me
to look out from my window
and scowl at the houses
from my world in the bedroom"

These solemn yet resplendent songs are snapshots of moments in time, and as such, communicate genuine emotions universal to the human experience. The beauty of our lives comes from finding meaning through experiences of both suffering and delight, towards a fulfillment in the embrace of life's wholeness. The music of Red House Painters, in even its most dejected moments, reaches for this understanding and ultimate appreciation of what makes our lives complete, even the struggle through the dark where only hope guides us to whatever distant light may lie ahead.

Let's determine if this album is suitable for you...

Have you experienced unusually strong (out of the 'bell curve') deep love for another human being, perhaps gotten yourself burned, or burned someone else, and yet repeated some of your previous mistakes, driven by some deep mysterious human impulse sometimes called 'fate' -- you feel compelled to follow -- despite your common sense advising you otherwise. Are you in your mid-20s to late-30s experiencing, just under the surface, profound disillusionment with love, relationships, and this particularly warped and emotionally twisted world of ours (and the warped minds which reflect the world back upon us) and need catharsis?

So if you answer Yes to these questions, this is the album for you.

This is the saddest , most deeply moving album I've ever heard. I knew it was sad when I downloaded it, but I was NOT expecting what came out of my speakers. I'm a pretty decent jaded producer and a musician, and I didn't think new music could still do this to me. My well-managed , suppressed emotions of Regret, Nostalgia, Reconciliation, and Fatalistic Acceptence all rapidly surfaced and bubbled over.

The tears were pouring down my face within 20 minutes. I shouldn't have read the lyrics.

The album is incredibly beautiful and painful, infused with loss and awareness, -- intricate in structure, masterfully crafted, profound attention to detail, a touch experimental -- just enough analog reverb -- surprisingly aggressive mixing , and mysterious, yet incredibly deep lyrics , on love , loss, aging, and alienation in this world in which we live.

This album has Absolutely entered my top #5, probably contending for the top three slots with Radiohead, Bjork, and Marvin Gaye, depending on how it holds up to multiple listens. Highly recommended.

My introduction Red House Painters. Not the type of band that fits easily into the 4AD genre but in many ways it is my favorite band on this label. I was lucky enough to be living in San Francisco when this album came out and caught them often up at the Haight. Slow paced, monotonous at times but harrowing on your soul. The lead singer's voice just emotes pain. The music by itself is just incredible. I recall the guitarist at the time seemed horribly at odds with the singer. One wanting to be a rock star the other horrified by the idea. This is magical stuff.

): Red House Painters (Rollercoaster) is a better album to introduce someone to this group, so that you realize that this guy has amazing talent, but after that revelation then you can enjoy depressing sentiments like Down Colorful Hill! That album and song (and Katy Song) are simply the best. Bye!

I remember some years ago when I bought this album, being a hardcore fan of several 4AD acts and not knowing anything about RHP but a live concert review from Lizardlounge magazine, how a strong experience it was: the sparse and obscure production (remember that this was a compilation of some polished demo recordings) yet technically never in the low quality side, but the most important, a quite emotional concept, Mark's personal and miserable lyrics full of vulnerability and self research that drilled my soul immediately, I wondered how brave a guy must be to be able to sing this bared emotions without crumbling down or deviating to certain common places, that and the out of trend musical arrangements, the exotic tuning and minimalism of Gorden's guitar parts and the sometimes martial band drumming... this was something special and will be forever, probably a more complicated affair than the posterior bridge and rollercoaster albums but for me their best. Try it please.