Cover songs have long been a crucial part of Mark Kozelek’s work. In the days of Red House Painters, Kozelek recorded devastating interpretations of songs by Kiss, Paul McCartney, and even Francis Scott Key to prove just how widely applicable his brand of melancholy was. His selection of covers—often picked straight from the classic-rock songbook—drew a clear line from his sepia-toned shoegaze to golden-era '70s radio, culminating in his curation of a John Denver tribute album at the turn of the millennium and his ensuing move toward more straight-ahead singer-songwriter material under the Sun Kil Moon moniker. In the first decade of the '00s, as Kozelek’s music found him less focussed on emotional extremes and more on the gray areas in between, he recorded subtle, gorgeous versions of songs by contemporaries like Low, Will Oldham, and Casiotone for the Painfully Alone. Up until his recent turn toward diaristic, autobiographical songwriting, these covers were some of his most revealing work: songs that felt as much a part of his legacy as any he had written.
In that sense, Kozelek’s latest collection of covers, Mark Kozelek Sings Favorites is his most classically Kozelekian release since 2010’s Admiral Fell Promises, the solo guitar mood piece that served as the finale for one season of his career, before 2012’s Among the Leaves ushered in a prolific era of controversies and absurdly big lyric sheets. Like Admiral Fell Promises, Mark Kozelek Sings Favorites features some material that will be familiar to longtime followers. Tracks like Bob Seger’s “Mainstreet” and the traditional folk song “Get Along Home Cindy” have appeared in his live sets for years. Meanwhile, a superior rendition of “Send in the Clowns” first showed up on his 2008 odds-and-ends collection The Finally LP, and “Float On” marks the twelfth Modest Mouse cover Kozelek has put to tape. As such, the title of this collection feels as much a means of drawing a tenuous thematic link between the material as it is a way of admitting, “These are just some songs that Mark Kozelek already knew the words to.” As with the previous release in this series (Sings Christmas Carols), you will probably know whether or not you want to hear it based on the title alone.
Still, it’s 2016 and it wouldn’t be a new Kozelek release without a few surprises. The most obvious change here is the fact that the sole accompaniment on the album is piano, an instrument used sparingly but effectively throughout his work. And while these performances are a far cry from, say, “Shadows”—the stirring piano ballad highlight from 1995’s Ocean Beach—Favorites has a few fine moments. “Float On,” a song whose tragic afterlife has found it Kidz Bopped and even worse, finally gets a rendition it deserves. Stripped of its iconic guitar hook, Kozelek’s rendition places the focus on the complex vocal climax at the end, made even more powerful by the understated piano part. Elsewhere, in a loving rendition of David Bowie’s “Win,” Chris Connolly's piano is the perfect accompaniment, alternating between jazzy, downtempo verses and bold choruses.
Other songs lack these dynamics, like the pleasant but unimaginative redos of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” Roy Harper's “Another Day,” and the aforementioned Seger cover. Although the latter’s lyrics are a perfect fit for Kozelek’s recent turn toward rambling recollection, the performance feels characterless. While the best of Kozelek’s cover songs found him refitting the songs to suit his particular guitar tunings and vocal style, the arrangements here are mostly identical to their originals. Who would have listened to his AC/DC covers album if he had just strummed power chords and hummed along? On Favorites, it’s as if Kozelek just wandered into a piano bar, handed over a stack of sheet music, and hit record.
At its best, the casual atmosphere makes for one of Kozelek’s loosest, lightest collections to date: something to throw on when you don’t have the emotional capacity for his more distinctive albums. And while Kozelek’s weary, grumbly voice has helped to give a sense of depraved intensity to his last few releases, it sounds prettier here than it has in a while, thanks in part to the inherent melodicism of the songs he picked for the project. Still, for an artist whose cover songs used to reveal multitudes about the performer, Favorites mostly feels self-serving. Maybe that’s why he chose to start the set off with “Send in the Clowns,” a wry song of wasted love and regret. Coming from a 49-year-old guy who, with every new release, seems increasingly uninterested in pleasing anyone but himself, it also plays as a sort of non-apology. “My fault, I fear,” Kozelek sings, “I thought that you wanted what I wanted—sorry my dear.” What follows is a collection of songs that is unlikely to become anybody’s favorite: just more proof that Mark Kozelek Sings Whatever the Hell He Wants.
