“With a Modest Mouse covers collection out of his system, Mark Kozelek is back to sketching his signature tales of love poisoned by expectation on his second album as Sun Kil Moon. Evenly divided between the distorted guitar epics of the last two Red House Painters albums (”The Light”) and spartan voice-and-acoustic confessionals (”Lucky Man”), “April” is the aural equivalent of that heartbreak that never heals. “Moorestown” and “Blue Orchids” set the bar high, with Kozelek’s fixation on little details (”Her walls are Mediterranean blue/Her baby sister picked the hue”) setting crystalline scenes. Kozelek never sugarcoats; the sting is almost tangible when he chronicles a failed romance on “Tonight in Bilbao,” and the loss of a loved one is literally as haunting as a ghost on “Unlit Hallway,” the first of two ace pairings with Will Oldham. Throughout, Kozelek connects memory to emotion with masterful strokes. —Jonathan Cohen”
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