SUN KIL MOON

Admiral Fell Promises

[Caldo Verde]

This fourth offering by Sun Kil Moon, the pseudonym for former Red House Painters leader Mark Kozelek, is a more subdued affair than previous efforts. The opener, “Alesund,” begins with a meticulously arpeggiated guitar underpinning a wistful vocal about an earthly muse. Similarly, the atmospheric “Half Moon Bay” conjures a bleak coastal landscape before winding its way to a long rubato guitar coda. Kozelek’s reedy, unadorned vocals evoke a similarly muted, intimate mood on everything here, such as the rhythmically varied suite “The Leaning Tree” and the darkly sentimental “Australian Winter.” (“The ocean beneath me is loneliness,” he sings.) With this low-key approach, Admiral Fell Promises is a lovely example of the old dictum “less is more.” With usually no more than a deftly and melodically played guitar paired with some beautifully understated singing, Kozelek creates a chilling but beautiful song cycle best enjoyed with the lights off. —Bob Cannon