Customer Reviews

Red House Painters I

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Though I can't believe it's been 15 years since this album came out, it still stands as Mark Kozelek's most enduring work, and the standard by which all of his later work, whether with the Painters, or under his own name, or with his current outfit Sun Kil Moon, will be measured.

Meticulously recorded, the album (the first of two self-titled albums released in 1993, and commonly referred to as the "Rollercoaster" LP) starts out on a high note with "Grace Cathedral Park," a haunting account of doomed love, and the somber confessions of songs like "Down Through" and "Dragonflies." The power of childhood memories is explored in songs like "Rollercoaster" and "New Jersey," with the band gently and slowly unfolding around Kozelek's gauzy guitar-scapes. The high point may well be the jagged "Mistress," the album's loudest and hardest-rocking number, which is also later reprised in a gorgeous solo piano version. The sustained tension in the longer epic psychodramas like "Strawberry Hill" and "Mother" make the album drag a bit towards the end, but the brief, shimmering "Brown Eyes" brings the album to a still, beautiful end.

As with much of his early work, his lyrics sometimes verge on embarrassingly confessional (From "Down Through": "I can still feel the sting in my hand from when I hit you." Ouch, TMI, dude...), the quality of his unique songwriting voice and gorgeous guitar work is undeniable. This is the kind of album that never fails to reveal new treasures, no matter how many times you play it. A sprawling masterpiece, and one of the defining albums of 1990's alternative rock.