Sunshine in Chicago – Sun Kil Moon
This has got to be the best song out of Mark Kozelek in a decade. He’s always most enjoyable doing pretty, world-weary songs but often has a tendency to let them run away from him. No chance of that here. It’s two and a half minutes and doesn’t even feel that long. It’s just him and the acoustic guitar and those gently tinkling bells that make me think of Buddy Holly. And he’s got the sort of voice that has improved leaps and bounds as it gets a little older and more crackly. There’s something incredibly intimate and real about it. Which is not to say that’s overbearing or especially weighty. The tongue is obviously in cheek on lines like this:
Sunshine in Chicago makes me feel pretty sad
My band played here a lot in the ’90s when we had
Lots of female fans, and fuck, they all were cute
Now I just sign posters for guys in tennis shoes
Still, it’s not a mocking sort of irony, just a bit of a wry grin.
Among the Leaves is due out on May 29.