Customer Reviews

Songs for a Blue Guitar [Vinyl]

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

ok, this is basically a mark kozelek solo album. the slow, meandering, acoustic ballads that RHP fans expect are still here, but they are interspersed with a duet(the title track), some disorienting squeal(make like paper),and some interesting covers(long distance run around, silly love songs, all mixed up). the opening track will give you some clue as to whether or not your destined to become a RHP fan; "have you forgotten" is the defining mark kozelek moment: sweet acoustic strumming, melancholy lyrics, and the saddest and smoothest voice that popular music ever produced. "song for a blue guitar" is a quiet ballad that will remind you of mazzy star's "fade into you". "make like paper" is a musician having his moment to push his limits a little, and it fails in a way that works well within the context of the album. (make sense? no? it's true, though.) the other stand outs on the album are the cover of the Car's "all mixed up" and "revelation big sur", which together alone are worth the price of the album. let these songs play back to back while you're out on a date... trust me.

there are seven commercially released RHP albums; i'm recommending you buy this first. if you like this, go on to no. 2 on my list OCEAN BEACH.

Whereas on the early RHP albums you can fully soak up in sorrow and melt away in atmospheric, reverb-sustaining instrumentation with long guitar jams and independent production, "Songs For A Blue Guitar" was the first rather mainstream release of Mark Kozelek's songs on Island records and so has to lose a bit of a magnificent audiophile experience. The songs rather go into rock than independent, guitars have a warm distortion that reminds a lot of the Neil Young/Crazy Horse 1975 masterpiece "Zuma" parted up with some fine acoustic western/country songs in a traditionally fresh manner. The songs are melancholic but not as touchingly sad and of rebellious art as on earlier realeases (Down Colorful Hill, "Rollercoaster", "Bridge" or the intimate Ocean Beach).

The whole atmosphere on the Blue Guitar seems more mature and hopeful. Rather surprisingly is the up-beat country song "I Feel The Rain Fall", which is definitely one of the most positive tracks Mark has ever done, but on the other side carries you back to his reality with its sarcastic lyrics.
Especially the reverb on the voice has been reduced, and goes on where Ocean Beach has left off.
The poetry to be found on the record is still excellent, there is no trace of losing intensity despite the musical changes. Special moments on the sentimental "Have You Forgotten" (that should later be re-recorded in a mesmerizing full-band version for Cameron Crow's movie "Vanilla Sky") or, the also musically high-lighting track, "All Mixed Up", a majestically arranged Cars cover. Beautifully intimate is the last song "Another Song For A Blue Guitar". Another musical gem is the long distorted howling jam "Make Like Paper" that could be mid-tempo epic Smashing Pumpkins' classic! Kozelek also starts making discoveries in covering classic songs that inspired his songwriting, a talent that should later be expanded on his solo releases, besides the Cars' cover, Paul McCartney's "Silly Love Songs" and the Yes song "Long Distance Runaround"
get remodelled in Red House Painters' unmistakable uniqueness (such metamorphosis had been done before to Paul Simon's "I Am A Rock" on the so-called "Bridge" album).

Summing-up I must say the record is no disappointment at all - but for those who are interested in how Red House Painters started up, and how they sounded raw and really "original", I'd suggest the "Rollercoaster"-album. But "Songs For A Blue Guitar" rather opens the door for fans of all other genres, not necessarily melancholy-approved.
Five stars. No doubt! Grandiosely administered step to a broader audience.

I've been a big fan of the Red House Painters ever since hearing their self-titled 1993 release. At the time, I was a huge 4AD fan and since I still hadn't heard the group with the awesome sepia-toned cover art, I decided to take a chance. After having purchased all of the albums that the group has released, I can honestly say that they are one of the most consistent ones out their. The backbone of the group (and main player on Songs For A Blue Guitar) has always been San Francisco dweller Mark Kozelek and I'm amazed that he doesn't have a larger following by now.

Songs For A Blue Guitar is actually kind of interesting in that it's the first release by the group (or man, whatever you prefer) that isn't on the 4AD label. Apparently, when Kozelek turned in his tapes of the music for the album to the label, they didn't like the style and he decided to go elsewhere with it. Really, I can't see what they saw wrong with it. While it does break in tradition a bit with the slow-core releases of old RHP, it's just as amazing as any of the past releases and probably even better.

The disc starts out with "Have You Forgotten," and the song is the epitomy of what is so great about the group. Although it's just Kozelek and an acoustic guitar, it's catchier and more interesting than a great majority of songs out their today. The lyrics are both instantly identifiable and the simple guitar instrumentation provides the perfect backing. The second song ("Songs For A Blue Guitar") breaks with tradition somewhat in its use of a slide guitar and the duet on vocals with a female singer. Things get even a little more strange on the 12-minute epic "Make Like Paper" where Kozelek uses an electric guitar (and dare I say, rocks?). Once again, though, it doesn't at all feel like it's stretching at all.

Like almost all of his albums, this disc has a couple of cover tracks, and like usual they end up sounding much better than the originals. The best of these is the amazing "All Mixed Up" by Ric Ocasek (who probably could have never realized that he wrote such a beautiful song). The Cars version simply cannot compare to the delicate, yet powerful version that Kozelek has put together. Paul McCartney gets a complete overhaul as well, as his "Silly Love Songs" is turned into the almost 11-minute electric-guitar fueled piece that manages to carry about 10 times the weight of the original.

Basically, if I had to throw out all my CDs except for 5, this would most definitely make the cut. As a group, the Red House Painters have never let me down with an album, and this one only raises the bar a little more. I've played it for several other people in the time that I've owned it and all of them (I'm not kidding) went out and personally bought a copy for themselves after hearing it. It falls somewhere between rock, folk, and country, but also is really in a category all it's own. One of the highest recommendations I can give.

(from almost cool music reviews)

If you have the soul for some beautifully ponderous and melancholy acoustic music, this album is truly exceptional. If you have the ear for jams, the electric tunes are powerful and rewarding. "Make Like Paper" and McCartney's "Silly Love Songs" are outstanding. The latter, an unlikely cover that you just have to hear to believe, borrows some unmistakable tones from Neil Young's Cortez the Killer. Reviews that suggest these jams are sloppy are simply wrong. They are raw, but not sloppy. If your patience and attention span limit you to three and a half minute pop melodies, this album is simply not for you.

A masterpiece of understated, beautiful music, Songs for a Blue Guitar is a good introduction to the melancholy tunes of Mark Kozalek. Songs For a Blue Guitar is more expansive than past records by the Red House Painters -- Make Like Paper, for example, is a new direction for the band, as is Long Distance Runaround -- but there are ample moments of breathtaking, quiet beauty also. It is a terrible shame, though, that the RHP back catalog has lapsed into out-of-print status here in the U.S.; Ocean Beach, especially, is an absolutely amazing record and is equally as good as Songs For a Blue Guitar. The recently released Retrospective is also a good choice, but the old records are quite worth the effort of getting also.

I understand reviewers who find this album tedious. But, I also understand those who love it dearly. This album is certainly not party music and does tend towards the melancholy but on the other hand it has some key songs that shouldn't be missed.

To my ears, the first three songs ARE the album. "Have You Forgotten" is a wonderful song about the bittersweet quality of reminiscing. It's followed by the haunting and sad "Song for a Blue Guitar" which is now a Red House Painters classic. "Make like Paper" is a rousing mid-tempo guitar piece--altogether straight ahead and likeable. That is until the infamous rambling "Neil Young and Crazy Horse"-styled guitar solo starts up and carries on for a good long hell of a time. I happen to like this kind of caterwauling myself, but the solo loses a lot of good will on some people. Supposedly, the band lost the good will of their label over it too.

I could listen to these three songs forever. The album could contain ONLY these and I'd be fine with it, because after they end the problems start. Those who groan about the album's slow monochromatic pace start to seem like they have a point. The second half of the album just gets a lot less interesting. The original songs don't reveal anything that hasn't already been done better in the first part of the album, while the cover songs that people fuss over so much stand out largely because they are completely unrecognizable from their original versions.

"All Mixed Up" has some merit, but why didn't the band just come up with some new lyrics and have a whole new song? Why pay royalties to The Cars for a song like this that bears little relation to the original? Some argue that this and in particular the cover of McCartney's "Silly Love Songs" is little more than an attention device designed to pull in listeners who might otherwise ignore the band.

I don't have an answer, other than to say that having seen Mark Kozelek play live on a recent tour; I can tell you he's in his own musical world. You have to come to his world. He's not coming to yours. He's got one really good sound: moody, ethereal, and evocative. That's what he does well and he doesn't stray from it. If you love it, you'll be happy; if you don't you'll be bored. I look at the album as a litmus test. If you cannot get into this album, you're not on his wavelength and probably don't need to bother with the rest of his work. If you do like it, you've come to the right spot and Kozelek has plenty of more music like it where this came from, both with this band and with his others.

I can only give the whole album three stars, but to my ears the first half of the album is five stars all the way.

Opposing musical perspectives between 4AD and Mark Kozelek saw Red House Painters depart from their long time label, signing to the ill'fated Supreme Recordings for the release of Songs For A Blue Guitar. Often considered a Kozelek solo work, Songs For A Blue Guitar, while keeping largely true to traditional Red House Painter themes in both music and lyrical theme, welcomes elements yet to be explored, at least to this extent, within the band's repertoire. Songs such as the over 12-minute "Make Like Paper" and the 11-minute dramatic reworking of Paul McCartney's "Silly Love Songs" are louder rock-style songs fueled by electric guitar and featuring lengthy guitar solos bordering on near absurdity when compared to the sparse elegance of previous material. There's a sense of a more 1970's-style rock inspiration in a few songs, perhaps a necessary release from the restraint and minimalism of past efforts, with elaborate lead guitar exercises and extended instrumental passages of an almost improvisational quality. Kozelek's production supports this direction, as the music sound "fuller", particularly the drums, which are given a heavier presence than past treatments. The production contrasts the more atmospheric character of previous albums with a sturdy, warm and louder sound.

"see where the bridge and mountain meet
at the mouth of the sea
and where the sailboats live a day
and turn away
with the purple evening"

The forlorn, country'tinged sadness of the title track, the reworking of The Car's "All Mixed Up" and the reflective folk gaze of "Trailways" are classic Red House Painters/Mark Kozelek moments. Perhaps only Nick Drake has ever demonstrated such nimble, intricately elegant finger-picking, but even Drake could never express without words what Kozelek does with the beautiful, yearning feedback during the final moments of "Trailways". "Revelation Big Sur" and "Priest Alley Song" express the beauty and sadness of life in delicate, heart'gripping fashion. Kozelek's sensitive and painfully aware lyrics breathe and pulse through the music, conveying the comfort of a passed loved one's favorite chair, the breathtaking fragility of love's mysteries, and the sentiments of faded photographs. There is an increased focus on the importance of a specific place and time, and the relevance of changing seasons to the framing of mood and memory. Seeming to have crawled from under the shadow of his emotionally and mentally crippling childhood memories, Kozelek now embraces, no matter how painfully, his adult status, though he still, and may always, struggle with intimacy, as he reaches for the completeness of his being. Yet to reach the age of thirty, he carries insight beyond his years, and his near-fatalistic vocal tone suggests a peaceful surrender to and acceptance of his existential condition.

"but the feelings that stay with you now
get lost over time somehow"

The perceived self'indulgence of the extended solos may be an obstacle, in particular to those listeners intolerant of the excess expressions of the more elaborately musical styles of classic rock. However, these moments, while lengthy, are not frequent enough to define the album, and are delivered in Kozelek's unique expressive character and ability to wrench such gripping emotion from his guitar, however embellished it is during these sections. Songs For A Blue Guitar shows growth of spirit and composition, while being a more flexible, varied and experimental effort than any Kozelek music before or after. The album is well rounded, ranging from the lighthearted and playful to the nostalgically melancholic and sorrowful. It is perhaps the most elegiac of the Red House Painters albums, while remaining firmly sourced in the folk-rock tradition, even in its most rock-oriented moments. The music's melody is not quite as resplendent in the epic sense as past efforts, taking on here a more sleepy, dreamlike tranquility that is no less penetrating and beautiful.

Man I used to listen to this album in around 1996 with every hangover. It is so well written, surreal, and subliminally layered. Thanks Mark. Just moved to SF a few years ago and hope to see you out someday!

This band might not be very well known, yet it is worshipped by enlightened audiences. The melancholic atmosphere leaves space for the flowing chords, which penetrate the mind with little chance to escape. This album has been worked over, polished like a gem and it shows.

More of a Mark Kozelek solo effort than a RHP album, Songs for a Blue Guitar covers familiar ground in songs like "Have You Forgotten" and "Big Sur Revelation"; but the highlights of the album are its departures from the usual RHP format: the aching pedal steel and duet of the title track, the excruciating wail of "Make Like Paper", the cover of "Silly Love Songs" that sounds like it's being deconstructed by a house band during the last set of a drunken night, and the masterpiece cover "All Mixed Up" which you probably heard in the Gap ad. This is an overlooked album in which even the casual listener will find some beauty, but for those rock fans who know that the six-string was made for heartache, in other words RHP fans, this cd will be around for awhile.