Listening to Mark Kozelek attempt a full album of Modest Mouse covers is like watching a man wrestle a grizzly bear: It's a challenge that falls somewhere between courageous and stupid. Modest Mouse's music, more so than with many other bands, is nearly inseparable from the musicians themselves. Isaac Brock's spitting delivery determines the vocal melodies and his particular hardluck perspective determines his logic-puzzle lyrics. But his voice and words are only two gears in a much larger mechanism, and as such, for better or worse, they depend on the other cogs to turn them-- the rangey guitarwork that trails through the songs like sparks off a campfire, the staggering and surprisingly melodic basslines of Eric Judy, the strength and fluidity of Jeremiah Green's drumwork. They don't attempt many versions of others' songs, either; in fact, their only recorded cover to date is an instrumental-- Santo & Johnny's "Sleepwalk"-- to which they added dreamy vocals, nocturnal lyrics, and a descending arc of guitar notes to offset the moody original.
Suffice it to say, Kozelek gets mauled on Tiny Cities. He attempts 11 covers, including tracks from every Modest Mouse full-length-- from Sad Sappy Sucker to Good News for People Who Love Bad News-- but his band only takes one or two musical elements from the Modest Mouse originals, so the songs sound pale and diminished compared to your memory of their source. Like Modest Mouse, Sun Kil Moon work best when Kozelek controls every aspect of their music, from the lyrics to the arrangements to the instrumentation. Brock's lyrics only highlight Kozelek's limitations as a singer: He has a commanding voice but molasses phrasing, which restricts the versatility of his interpretations. And Sun Kil Moon don't show as much range on Tiny Cities as they did on their debut, Ghost of the Great Highway. Their tasteful Americana is long on atmosphere but short on real dynamics: Most of these tracks sound more or less uniform, which is odd considering the variety of the Modest Mouse versions.
Divorced from their original contexts, Brock's lyrics don't fit easily into Sun Kil Moon songs. "Tiny Cities Made of Ashes" suffers worst, trading the original's bizarre bass bounce and aggrieved alienation for a lackadaisical pace and chiming vocals. Kozelek punctuates each line with an awkward two-syllable theme, sung in a slightly higher register-- "oh no" or "my throat" or "coca-COLA". It's an awkward fit for elements that didn't translate well. Nothing else is quite so egregious, but most of these tracks sound silly as they try to anchor Modest Mouse's otherworldly songs to an earthly sound. "Dramamine" and "Convenient Parking" attempt to churn up dark tension, but fall flat. On "Never-Ending Math Equation" Kozelek switches out the accents and long notes in the vocal melodies, but it's ruined by the mumbling chorus that attempts to literalize infinity. And the closer, "Ocean Breathes Salty", sounds particularly guileless and mopey in this strictly acoustic setting, a coffeehouse encore that carries little impact.
Despite the stumbles, Kozelek does get a few good hits in before the bear devours him. A short take on "Exit Does Not Exist" contains a hint of an overture: Atop a gently plucked guitar, Kozelek sings, "I hear voices insinuating/ Feeds me words to this song that I am singing"-- using Brock's words to explain and maybe even apologize for the project. The string arrangements stand out on "Space Travel Is Boring" and "Jesus Christ Was an Only Child", suggesting the weightlessness of the former and the infinite uncertainty of the latter. "Grey Ice Water" comes across as the most successful undertaking: Against a snare drum rhythm that scratches out a steady march tempo, Kozelek plays up the song's implied narrative, creating the sense of a long distance traveled-- which recalls the road-trip aesthetic of Modest Mouse's This Is a Long Drive for Someone With Nothing to Think About and The Lonesome Crowded West. But such moments are very dim lights in a dark space, and only serve to highlight the major flaw of Tiny Cities: These tracks are botched experiments that can't even function as interesting failures.
