"Mark Kozelek with Ben Boye and Jim White" Review

Background: Mark Kozelek (Sun Kil Moon, Red House Painters) collaborates with pianist Ben Boye (Ty Segall, The Weather Station) and drummer Jim White (Dirty Three). The album will be Kozelek's fourth of the year, following February's monstrous Common as Light and Love Are Red Valleys of Blood, 30 Seconds to the Decline of Planet Earth with Jesu, and June's Yellow Kitchen with Parquet Court bassist Sean Yeaton.

Review: Honestly, it's just another Mark Kozelek album. At this point, that is what any listener familiar with his extensive discography would come to expect. Rambling stream-of-consciousness lyrics about any topic imaginable and fairly low-key instrumentation are hallmarks of Kozelek's last few years. However, his best projects have something that sets them apart. 2015's Benji had its heartbreaking stories and extra personal lyrics. Even Common as Light was blessed with varied instrumentation to break up the sometimes monotonous 130 minutes.
Both Boye and White bring their years of experience to the table, but present it in a subtle manner. This works for the album's style, bringing the focus to Kozelek's words. His words, clever or unfortunate as they may be, are the heart of any of his albums. Songs cover topics from cats ("House Cat") to Elliott Smith coming to him in a dream ("The Black Butterfly"). Despite this, the album works best as background noise. None of it is bad, or even particularly exhausting. The 90 minute run time flies by in a relative manner of speaking. The instrumentation acts as a couch for Kozelek to sit on and ramble from. Even the nearly 17-minute closing track doesn't feel as long as it should. This is high praise for an album like this.
It doesn't stand out from much of Kozelek's discography, but it still works as another solid addition. Maybe he'll have another album by the year's end.

Mark Kozelek with Ben Boye and Jim White is out now via Caldo Verde Records.