Joey Always Smiled - Mark Kozelek & Petra Haden: Review
is an Ohio born and San Francisco based singer-songwriter who first gained recognition as the frontman of legendary slowcore band Red House Painters. Since the disbanding of that group Mark has released a ton of records many under how own name, many under the Sun Kil Moon moniker and many collaborations with a number of other musicians like Jesu, Jimmy Lavalle, Desertshore, Ben Boye, Jim White, Sean Yeaton and now violinist Petra Haden of The Decemberists fame.
Review By Lavender:
It's not a secret that I have loved just about everything Mark Kozelek has ever done, and the prolific recent era of his career is no different. He has released an absolute ton of music over the past few years and there has been no shortage of his monologues, observations. and stories for him to tell. Earlier this year I dished out a lot of praise to his Sun Kil Moon record I Also Want To Die In New Orleans where he played part time animal expert and part time political observes over the records 7 songs which added up to an hour and a half. With some of my favorite records of this entire decade under is belt in Benji, Common As Light And Love Are Red Valleys Of Blood and Perils From The Sea, I always have high expectations for his music, and Joey Always Smiled is one of his best collaborations to date.
The record is 7 tracks long and just a hair over 70 minutes made up by four shorter tracks and three very long ones, as usual with Mark the longest tracks here are frequently the most rewarding. Parakeet Prison opens up this record with some very haunting vocalizing in the instrumental of the first passage that features some stark keys playing background to Mark recollecting his memories. The instrumental switch-up becomes warmer and brighter for the next set of memories which gives the track its title in the discussion of a pet store. The next passage is a really interesting change of pace moment where Kevin Corrigan steps in to deliver some monotone and often very moving spoken word narration going into some stark and intricate detail on his own memories and a great story of him witnessing a man climbing into a tiger pit and wondering about what may have led him to do so. Once the track gets back to Mark he seems to even have a short response to Kevin's passage before responding and telling an equally compelling story about his first trip to San Francisco and a difficult story about his younger sister meeting Asian people for the first time. Overall the song is an excellent introduction to the albums sounds and themes.
The sixth track is the hilariously titled Spanish Hotels Are Echoey and the title comes from a theme more frequently brought up than most of Mark's other songs. The songs main appeal and most compelling moment of storytelling comes when Mark details his time at a music festival and his interactions with Stephen Malkmus of Pavement fame. The two discuss their admiration for each others work and Mark shares some of his history with Malkmus and a few other musicians, before transitioning into a story about some kids asking him for advice about struggling with depression.
The longest song on the record and one of my favorite Kozelek tracks since 2017's Stranger Than Paradise is the amazingly titled, 1983 Era MTV Music Is The Soundtrack To Outcasts Being Bullied By Jocks. This is a REALLY interesting track that appears, at least at first glance to be performed in front of a live audience in Philadelphia. The song is filled out with much more instrumentation than a typical Koz song and opens up with Mark telling the audience some stories about him visiting Philly in the early days of Red House Painters and how age had effected what he does while in the city. Next up is a serious love letter to long time Mark Kozelek fans because after praising Kurt Vile and listing off some of his favorite of Kurt's songs Mark rips once again into The War On Drugs, comparing them negatively to Dire Straits and recounting the reasons why he made his legendary diss track The War On Drugs Can Suck My Cock. This is where the song gets its title as Mark discusses MTV during the Dire Straits era being the soundtrack to him being bullied as an outcast in school. He leads this into a discussion of his continuing to be an outsider and how slowcore bands were looked down on in the exciting Nirvana era of music in the 90's. The final moments of the track see him praising Sean Yeaton of Parquet Courts and even promoting the collab album they made together. The track is one of the most instrumentally excellent in this entire era of Mark's career and on top of that the subject matter is so fantastic, just an amazing song overall.
Joey Always Smiled tells the story of one of Mark's childhood friends, fittingly named Brett. Brett has a special needs brother named Joey who very clearly made a strong impact on Mark as the song and record is named after him. But the majority of this track sees Mark discussing he and Brett's shared interest in the guitar, the difference between them as players, and some of the influences that Mark took when he was learning to play early on. Nice People All Around has one of the best instrumentals here as Mark aeesmbles a loosely connected series of musings the most notable one being a story about some of his boxing heroes. The track really shines with a gorgeous vocal passage from Petra Haden that helps make every moment pop and Mark's emotion become even more potent, one of the shorter tracks here but it really makes its impact. The Power Of Love is a pretty interesting track as it's a cover of the Huey Lewis And The News song of the same name and almost seems to be done in a tongue and cheek manner given the critique of this era musically and culturally that Mark puts on earlier in the record. The song obviously comes out as more of a conventional tune than most of the rest here and overall it is a genuinely well performed closing moment to the record, although while I do sincerely enjoy it I do have to question if it was done ironically in the first place.
Very rarely are their songs on Mark Kozelek records that I just flat out don't like from start to finish but this record unfortunately has one. Rest In Peace R. Lee Ermey has one of the weakest instrumentals and pairs it with some of the loosest songwriting on the entire record. Mark plays film critic giving his review of Full Metal Jacket, cringely reciting some of his favorite lines and finally deeming the film not a good one to fall asleep to when there are other people around.
Joey Always Smiled is a triumph for Mark Kozelek who has had almost nothing but triumphs over and over in this decade. Petra Haden is a more than welcomed addition who brings extra instrumentation that is so consistently gorgeous and engaging that it breathes a new life into these tracks. Despite being a huge fan of Mark I think this is one of his best releases in his very prolific past few years and it has me looking forward even more to anything and everything he may do next. 8.5/10
