Poor old Mark Kozelek. The frontman for the in-limbo Red House Painters has been down on his luck seemingly since the beginning of time. Since his band's 1992 debut, Down Colorful Hill, his desperate longing for childhood has plagued his music like an eternal therapy session. After all these years, you'd think he'd be resigned to aging. Yet, here he is again, mournful and bitter as the day you first heard him.
After the Red House Painters garnered a substantial cult following on London's influential 4AD imprint in the '90s, Kozelek left their roster over creative differences with label head Ivo Watts-Russell-- Ivo wanted to edit the 13-minute long guitar jams of 1996's Songs for a Blue Guitar to a more reasonable length, but this suggestion was vetoed. Instead, the Red House Painters took the pleasing, if occasionally plodding, record to filmmaker John Hughes' Island-funded Supreme Recordings label where Kozelek was given full creative reign over his music.
After a major industry buyout, though, Supreme Recordings got the ax and has since been in a futile and apathetic search for funding. In the meantime, the Red House Painters' Old Ramon, which was recorded for the label in 1998, remains unreleased due to contractual obligations. However, Kozelek has apparently been given the right to release material through the Badman Recording Company under his own name. Rock 'N' Roll Singer is his solo debut, and his first release in four years.
Rock 'N' Roll Singer is an acoustic album featuring three new Kozelek originals, three AC/DC covers, and a John Denver cover. Already, this doesn't look promising. Red House Painters albums are, for the most part, equally affecting, but the guys haven't ever been much for variation. Their saving grace has usually been the nicely arranged instrumentation and production. But you can't just do a whole album of melancholy acoustic ballads-- the majority of which you didn't even write-- and expect critical acclaim.
While Kozelek does have a knack for turning literally anything into an authentic Red House Painters ballad, he's long since done it to death. We've already heard his lush, ethereal version of Kiss' "Shock Me"; do we really need his predictably similar take on Bon Scott? Yes, it's stunning how much emotion he can pack into AC/DC's brainless '70s arena rock staples, but why three times?
Kozelek's originals here are affecting as usual. His sensitive, downtrodden lyrics are again just a bit overwrought, but the simplicity of his delivery is still far more convincing than Jeremy Enigk's on Sunny Day Real Estate's The Rising Tide. Yet, sadly, aside from the wistful lead-off track, "Find Me, Ruben Olivares," the melodies on Rock 'N' Roll Singer are far from captivating, and when your interest drifts from the lyrics, these tracks hold your attention like watching the effects of photosynthesis in real time.
Rock 'N' Roll Singer is pleasant enough to listen to, but its tossed-off nature is transparent. Kozelek sounds like he wants to go to sleep. And it's a bad sign when you can barely stay awake for your own record's 28 minute duration. At this point, he needs an unlikely burst of creativity to propel him past what he's been stuck doing for 10 straight years if he wants people to keep buying his records.
