Ghosts of the Great Highway

Magnet
When songs are this transporting, you can only hope they'll last forever.

Product Description
Where it's the gorgeous string trio underpinning "Last Tide," the melancholy epic "Duk Koo Kim," the unexpected driving rhythms of "Lily and Parrots," or the compelling personal reminiscences of "Floating," the material both expands and refines Kozelek's trademark sound. The songs on Ghosts of the Great Highway concern themselves more than ever with matters of life and death, without ever forgetting the inherent magic of a pretty melody or a gripping beat.

Ghosts of the Great Highway

Ghosts of the Great Highway,Sun Kil Moon,Jet Set Records,Alternative Pop/Rock,Dream Pop,Folk-Rock,Indie Pop,Pop,Psychedelic Pop,Rock,Rock/Pop

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Ghosts of the Great Highway

Average customer rating: Why do I have to be the bad guy? A Brilliant, Haunting Album (slightly enhanced by the bonus CD) Woken up from a dream last night, somewhere lost in war...

Ghosts of the Great Highway Sun Kil Moon Manufacturer: Caldo Verde ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD General | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music Indie Rock | Indie & Lo-Fi | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music General | Indie & Lo-Fi | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music Dream Pop | Indie & Lo-Fi | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music Folk Rock | Rock | Styles | Music General | Rock | Styles | Music Psychedelic Rock | Classic Rock | Styles | Music Pop Rock | Pop | Styles | Music Similar Items: Little Drummer Boy Live Tiny Cities Songs for a Blue Guitar The Search New Moon ASIN: B000LRZ02K Release Date: 2007-02-06

Tracks:

1. Glenn Tipton
2. Carry Me Ohio
3. Salvador Sanchez
4. Last Tide
5. Floating
6. Gentle Moon
7. Lily and Parrots
8. Duk Koo Kim
9. SPaloma
10. Pancho Villa

Tracks:

1. Somewhere [#][*]
2. Carry Me Ohio [Alternative Version][#][*]
3. Salvador Sanchez [Acoustic][#][*]
4. Arrival [#][*]
5. Somewhere [Version 2][#][*]
6. Gentle Moon [Radio Recording][#][*]

Customer Reviews:

Why do I have to be the bad guy?.......2007-05-19

So I was floating out in the Pacific Ocean and I asked my wife for this CD. As soon as it was delivered to the ship, I popped it in and listened. Next track...Next track...Next track. This all sounds the same. Being at sea, opening mail is like Christmas day, and this was like I got a pair of sox instead of a bike. And why is this a double disc? Both CD's are the exact same thing. Could you at least put some kind of effect on the guitar so I could say, "Hey, this doesn't ALL sound the same." I dont think Mark Kozelek is trying to gain fans because this album really turned me off to the modern folk american singer/songwriter. Switch it up a bit, big guy. I'd love to hear a some drum and bass thrown in. Did someone say remix? = ) Holla!

P.S. I do like three Red House Painters songs.

A Brilliant, Haunting Album (slightly enhanced by the bonus CD).......2007-02-12

Since this package is a rerelease with bonus material -- and since the original release now appears to be out of print -- I'll reiterate my original review below with a paragraph at the end about the bonus tracks.

Album of the Year, 2003

With his early '90s band, the Red House Painters, San Francisco's Mark Kozelek struck a chord of disquiet and bohemian poignancy that made that band the darling of the scribbling-poems-to-the-pretty-barista-who-will-never-know-my-name set. With lovely, unadorned melodies and Kozelek's angst-ridden tributes to disillusionment, the Red House Painters influenced a score of later bands who lacked his rich melodic imagination and incisive lyrics -- Low is a good example -- resulting in Kozelek himself being typecast as the maestro of "mopecore." Then he did something unforgivable in the minds of some of his fans: he evolved.

Without rehashing the epic travails and record-biz nightmares that caused RHP's fine album "Old Ramon" to be delayed in release for years after it was finished, the good news is that "Ghosts of the Great Highway" not only continues the evolutionary path Kozelek took on later RHP work like "Songs for a Blue Guitar" and his solo album "Rock and Roll Singer," it's a masterpiece on its own terms, and the most magnificent rock album of 2003.

If you thought they didn't make albums like Neil Young's "Everybody Knows This is Nowhere" anymore, cue up "Ghosts of the Great Highway," and marvel over the fact that Kozelek and company are able to cross-pollinate folk, country, punk, and psychedelic influences without sounding the least bit retro, stealing the purifying flame of Crazy Horse meltdowns like "Cortez the Killer" while sounding like no one but themselves. If you're a Nick Drake fan warming your hands over the ashes of "Pink Moon," consider the fact that at least one song on this album, "Duk Koo Kim," is as beautiful and otherwordly as anything in Drake's oeuvre (particularly the acoustic version, released on a limited edition EP last year), and consider the possibility that Kozelek is as unfairly ignored and marginalized in our time as Drake was in his.

"Glenn Tipton," "Duk Koo Kim," "Carry Me Ohio" and "Gentle Moon" are all instant classics, full of heart, understated grace, and authentic yearning, while avoiding the art-school sentimentality of Kozelek's early work. "Duk Koo Kim" is especially worthy of note, reinvented here as a 14-minute folk-punk-psychedelic apocalypse, with backwards guitars, Portuguese guitars, and bells swirling around Kozelek's aching voice. (I can't praise this track enough, other than to say that if I was a very bright teenager with a set of headphones and a bong, I'd probably decide to become a musician after hearing this song alone.) It's one of the most terrifying love songs ever written, as emotionally naked as the songs on Joni Mitchell's "Blue." (Like several of the songs on this album, "Duk Koo Kim" is the tale of a hero who died young -- in this case, a Korean boxer killed in the ring.) The only misstep on the record is Kozelek's formula-grunge treatment of his gorgeous tune "Lily and Parrots," which appeared as a hidden acoustic track on his "White Christmas Live."

At his best, Kozelek writes and sings like an oracle, and plays feedback-drenched electric guitar with as much intensity as his punk and heavy metal heroes while never descending into mere chaos and noise. If you're a music critic or record reviewer (I happen to be an editor of Wired magazine, and have no connection to Kozelek), entertain the notion that instead of hyping the latest skinny-tie buzz band that no one will care about in 3 years, you might consider running a piece on Kozelek and this album. If you're a music fan who enjoys Wilco, Iron and Wine, and other forward-looking traditionally-influenced bands, give this a listen. It's far beyond what almost everyone is doing these days.

"Ghosts" disc two, 2007

Hearing these bonus tracks (two brilliant, one fine, and two only mediocre), I suggest that what Kozelek should have done was to release "Ghosts" originally with the instrumental "Arrival" inserted somewhere in the running order, and finishing with either version of "Somewhere." Kozelek's reinvention of West Side Story's yearning love song is profound, heart-wrenching, and gorgeous. (The yearning is even more poignant knowing that the song's composers, Stephen Sondheim and Leonard Bernstein, were gay and bisexual respectively, but the feelings expressed are universal.) "Somewhere" would have been an emotionally devastating capper to a magnificent album; at least we have it now. I prefer the slightly punchier second take, which employs the same Portuguese guitar-like instrument as "Duk Koo Kim" on the original album, but the string arrangement on the first version is also lovely. The straightforward folky reading of "Salvador Sanchez" is fine; the other two bonus tracks are merely competent. In my dreams, Kozelek would also have supplemented this bonus disc with the astounding double-tracked acoustic version of "Duk Koo Kim" that appeared only on a vinyl EP -- it's one of the true masterpieces of his career, and is now in danger of being a "lost" track available only to connoisseurs. But enough second-guessing. This is a great album, now made slightly greater.

Woken up from a dream last night, somewhere lost in war..........2007-02-10

To me, this is Mark Kozelek's masterpiece. Ever since I purchased this album in 2004, it's been one of my favorite albums, and I believe now, it is my favorite album. There's a little bit of everything on this album and that's why I like it so much. The guitar-laden "Salvador Sanchez," the driving rhythms of "Lily and Parrots," the nostalgia of "Carry Me Ohio," and the epic "Duk Koo Kim." The only thing holding me back from giving this re-issued album five stars is the bonus disc. I don't think it has much to offer. The versions of Leonard Bernsteins are good, the first version being better than the other, but not really noteworthy. The radio version of "Gentle Moon" and the acoustic version of "Carry Me Ohio" are both off a little bit vocally, and I think the live versions on "Little Drummer Boy" is much better, vocally and musically. The only song I actually really dig on the bonus disk is "Arrival," a two-to-three minute instrumental. But you're the consumer, so buy it and make up your mind as well.

Average customer rating: i love it Yes. One of my Top 5 Favorites of All Time really... amazing... music.... I really wanted to like this...

Ghosts of the Great Highway Sun Kil Moon Manufacturer: Jet Set Records ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD General | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music Indie Rock | Indie & Lo-Fi | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music General | Indie & Lo-Fi | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music Dream Pop | Indie & Lo-Fi | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music Folk Rock | Rock | Styles | Music General | Rock | Styles | Music Psychedelic Rock | Classic Rock | Styles | Music Pop Rock | Pop | Styles | Music Similar Items: Tiny Cities Songs for a Blue Guitar What's Next to the Moon Rock 'N' Roll Singer The Sky and the Ocean ASIN: B0000DIZSW Release Date: 2003-11-04

Tracks:

1. Glenn Tipton
2. Carry Me Ohio
3. Salvador Sanchez
4. Last Tide
5. Floating
6. Gentle Moon
7. Lily and Parrots
8. Duk Koo Kim
9. Si, Paloma
10. Pancho Villa

Album Description

Where it's the gorgeous string trio underpinning "Last Tide," the melancholy epic "Duk Koo Kim," the unexpected driving rhythms of "Lily and Parrots," or the compelling personal reminiscences of "Floating," the material both expands and refines Kozelek's trademark sound. The songs on Ghosts of the Great Highway concern themselves more than ever with matters of life and death, without ever forgetting the inherent magic of a pretty melody or a gripping beat.

Customer Reviews:

i love it.......2007-07-06

I found this album by researching Mark Kozelek after seeing him in Shopgirl. I didn't know that my two favorite songs from the movie were on this album. It's a mellow record, so I listen to it sometimes when I'm stressed and it chills me out. I also listen to it before I go to sleep. Other then Lily and Parrots, all of songs are pretty slow.
It's a great album.

Yes........2007-07-06

So as not to be redundant, I will only say that this album is by far one of the most beautiful pieces of modern alternative music recorded. It rivals U2's The Joshua Tree and I dare say, when it comes to undeserved obscurity, Sun Kil Moon are the modern equivalent of Nick Drake. Just as he was unknown by his own generation and discovered decades later, I wouldn't be surprised if people in 20-30 years picked up Ghosts and wondered why the hell it wasn't celebrated for the beauty that it is.

One of my Top 5 Favorites of All Time.......2007-04-19

I purchased this CD years ago on the strength and beauty of the song "Carry Me Ohio" alone. I listened to the entire CD just once before shoving it back in its case in disgust and throwing it onto the floor of my car's passenger's side. I wasn't ready for this CD. I wasn't open-minded enough to enjoy it. Fast-forward two or three years. I was cleaning out my car one summer day (yes, I'm really that big of a Car Slob(tm)) when I came across this CD wedged under the front passenger's seat. I didn't feel like listening to the crappy terrestrial radio station any longer, so I shoved this into the CD player to listen to as I Armor All'd the dash. I was in love. I couldn't stop listening to this CD. From the opening notes of "Glenn Tipton" to the rollicking riff of "Lily and Parrots" to the exciting yet peaceful notes of 14-minute "Duk Koo Kim," I couldn't get enough of this music. "Carry Me Ohio" soon became on of my LEAST favorite tunes on the CD. I love Mark Kozelek's reedy voice -- which I like to describe as a cross between Neil Young and Chris Isaak -- and I love his compositions. Even my husband, Mr. Slipknot Lamb Of God Mudvayne, loves this CD with a passion. Buy it. Immerse yourself in it. I wouldn't be surprised if it soon became on of your Top 5 or Top 10 favorites of all time, too. :)

really... amazing... music...........2007-04-10

...and not "amazing" the way that 22 year old girl says "amazing." More like, amazing the way a 43 year old male would say "amazing."

I know it's a bit of an acquired taste, and not everyone will like this. I've met a few people who love it like I do, but not many. If you are a fan of music by, say, Neil Young, Hem, Leonard Cohen... I would say most likely you will like this CD. As a whole, it's a great piece of work. It really stands together as a whole. As a matter of fact, I would suggest the best place to listen is when you are alone in the car on a long drive.

I really wanted to like this..........2007-02-26

I had a tough time listening to this. Mark Kozelek's voice seems to me to be much like Neil Young's, but lacking the melodious quality of Young's voice. You're left with a flat nasality that grates. The music is trance inducing, a drone in the background, neither serving the lyrics nor engaging the listener. After reading the reviews, I realize I'm in the minority here, and I'm glad so many people found enjoyment with this. I wish I were one of them, but all I feel here is a numbness.

Rap Music:

1. Greatest
2. Greatest Hits [Explicit Lyrics]
3. Halcyon Days
4. Halloween, Alaska [Enhanced]
5. Heavy Horses [Extra tracks] [Original recording remastered]
6. Hello, Good Friend
7. I See a Darkness
8. letting off the Happiness
9. Light & Shade [Import]
10. Long Distance

Rap Music

rap music

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