Is Sun Kil Moon's "Benji" the top contender f

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This is much better

>>74415782
maybe

>>74415848
Hard for me to decide between the two. I think I like Benji a little better for now though.

I find it absolutely grotesque - yes, grotesque, and unlike most of the reactions to this record, that is not an exaggeration - that all sorts of dudes (they're all dudes) (many of whom I carry high respect for) have stumped for this hopelessly generic 62-minute navel-picking while paying no attention whatsoever to non-Pitchfork-approved country singer-songwriters like, say, Todd Snider, who's been doing this same kind of stuff just as long as Kozelek and can actually write, sing, and think deeply about his subjects instead of just moping a snoozy aging frat-boy voice and drawing out in crayon how you're supposed to feel. (Same goes for John Darnielle. Anyone here heard the latest Drive-By Truckers album, by the way? Didn't think so.)
Every generation gets some self-pitying guitar picker who can't sing or write and gets imbued with significance because being sad is easier than being happy. Some generations get more than one. Sometimes we get whole bands like that. Kozelek, whose eternally bored voice actually makes me yearn for Elliott fucking Smith, has been mining this same territory - while each time somehow managing not to bring anything new to the table - for well over two decades now. Isn't it time we stopped falling for this shit? Cut the umbilical cord already? Like, is this a language? What does it inspire? Christ, if Mark Kozelek or Kurt fucking Vile is this young century's answer to 'quality singer-songwriter,' I say we save time and just have the funeral now. Stop feeling sorry for yourselves; you're slowing things down and you're part of the problem. Boys are dying on these streets. Fuck off.

>>74415782
No, it's garbage

>>74415848
I like Benji more, but Common is still fantastic and near 10/10

>>74415924
Here, Mr pasta, have a nice singer/songwriter from this century.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwSGm1kul8Y

>>74415924

>Anyone here heard the latest Drive-By Truckers album, by the way? Didn't think so

kill yourself, Drive By Truckers is trash and if that's your standard for something that deserves more attention than Sun Kil Moon than you have garbage taste. I was forced to listen to that shit in a friend's car.

Common As Light is a genuinely innovative album and I challenge someone to find me something similar.

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No but this is

Mark Kozelek has always been one more alt-rock sad sack to me, and without much a beat at that, so I won't pretend there's any musical reason to listen to this wall-to-wall bummer. But where he's generally obsessed on an alt-rock melancholy about which most human beings could care less, here he explores something that happens to everyone: death in the family, mostly in working-class Ohio, where he grew up. There's his second cousin Carissa gone at 35 in a freak garbage fire, his uncle gone the same way long ago, his kindly grandma in L.A., and worst of all his dad's pseudonymous mercy-killing friend--who with his wife taken out of her misery turned the gun on himself only then "failed at suicide" and got sentenced to prison. All of which induces him to write "I Love My Dad" and "I Can't Live Without My Mother's Love," and whether you're attracted to his songs or not you feel just how bad this depressive is gonna hurt when his long-separated parents go. That's musical enough for me. B+

>>74416076
I think you should be able to tell when something has been copy pasted directly from rym...

>>74416100

I can but just the fact that he copypasted that pisses me off

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>>74416115

>>74415924
Don't insult johnny boy.

>>74415848
>>74415905
universal themes is better than benji

>>74415782
It's a contender for the decade, even if what made it so good was by chance. Kozelek is a great songwriter though. Even his newer stuff, which is objectively flawed, is still enjoyable, albeit from a stance that understands the world of his kind of music.

>>74416076
Haven't listened to a single Sun Kill Moon song, let alone album. Can you explain to me what is innovative about this album?

>>74416306
stream of conscious singer-songwriter

Personally

Benji > Down Colorful Hill > Admiral Fell Promises > Common As Light > Ocean Beach > Rollercoaster > Among The Leaves > Ghosts Of The Great Highway > 30 Seconds > Songs For A Blue Guitar > Yellow Kitchen > April > Night Talks > Universal Themes > Bridge > Old Ramon > J/SKM

I know some may disagree

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>>74416306
Kozelek is the James Joyce of indie music and Benji is his Ulysses

>>74416316
>ut that low
>ghosts that low
y?

>>74416313
What does that mean?

>>74416333
In literature, stream of consciousness is a method of narration that describes in words the flow of thoughts in the minds of the characters.

>>74416316
this guy has an incredibly hard to discography to rank but putting shit like 30 seconds and yellow kitchen above universal themes and old Ramon is ridiculous

>>74416306

combines stream-of-conscience spoken word with a wide variety of vocal styles ranging from punk-ish screaming to some forms of what could be considered rapping, along with instrumentation ranging from simple indie folk instrumentation, to electronic minalism stuff, to funky 70s style music, and more (talking about the album Common As Light mostly but also other recent stuff)

>>74416406

>electronic minalism stuf

*electronic minimalism stuff

>>74416306
Depressed old man tells long stories about his life over some nice instrumentals.

>>74416406
i would say the 2nd half of benji to universal themes started his innovative style.
ut was the demo tape.
common is the masters

WAR ON DRUGS

>>74416418
nah hes happy in his own mark way. if he was depressed would have killed himself like the other singer-songwriters.

>>74416441
Maybe not chronically depressed, but he often sounds quite melancholic.

>>74416306
I mean I can't listen to either Common as Light or Benji without sobbing halfway through the first song all the way through til the end

>>74416332
UT would be higher if it werent for Ali/Spinks 2, which is his worst song. The rest is alright. Ghosts is definitely good its just not AS good.
>>74416393
30 seconds has Bombs, Hello Chicago, Wheat Bread, Dream Of Winter, and Twenty Something, all fantastic songs. Yellow Kitchen is a very interesting, catchy, and different album for Kozelek.
Lets just say Old Ramon is the closest Kozelek got to sounding like "beer commercial rock" and UT has Ali/Spinks 2

>>74416626
Maybe I'm just a faggot, but I've never listened to Benji without breaking into tears.

>>74415782
Personally my album of the decade but century? That's a stretch.

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>>74416240
no