Rock N' Roll Singer [EP]

It's been four years since Red House Painters' Songs For A Blue Guitar was released, with its near-legendary guitar solo on "More Like Paper" (allegedly the reason behind the Painters' parting of ways with their label, 4AD). Since then, legal difficulties have prevented the release of its follow-up, Old Ramon. Fans, therefore, must content themselves with this haunting, acoustic solo record from singer Kozelek in the interim. It's as solemn, slow-paced and simmering as one would expect from the man who invented "slowcore", but nowhere near as meandering as his main group could sometimes be. Songs like "Around And Around" and the poignant elegy "Rose Marie" have a Denver-esque quality to them, while Kozelek's cover of AC/DC's youth anthem "Rock'N'Roll Singer" is almost unrecognisable. It's amazing what a little minimalism will do. --Everett True

As the beating heart of the criminally overlooked Red House Painters, Mark Kozelek occasionally indulged in deconstructed cover versions of unlikely songs in which the source material was almost (and beautifully) unrecognizable. On his first solo album, he covers three AC/DC songs and a John Denver gem, throwing in a handful of his own compositions for balance. Kozelek's genius lies in uncovering a secret song hidden within the one we recognize: he highlights a hidden sub-melody on Denver's "Around and Around" and morphs the AC/DC anthems into tender folk studies, all delivered in his deep and expressive olive-oil voice. His own compositions are no less beautifully and uniquely rendered, making Rock 'n' Roll Singer a small, necessary masterpiece from an unparalleled artist. --Tod Nelson

As the beating heart of the criminally overlooked Red House Painters, Mark Kozelek occasionally indulged in deconstructed cover versions of unlikely songs in which the source material was almost (and beautifully) unrecognizable. On his first solo album, he covers three AC/DC songs and a John Denver gem, throwing in a handful of his own compositions for balance. A Badman Records release.