Red House Painters I (EU)

Melody Maker - "...[RED HOUSE PAINTERS] is the musical equivalent of letting the dappled, slow-moving surface of some great river carry you where the undercurrents dictate..." Rolling Stone - 3 Stars - Good - "...Some of the slowest and mopiest self-revelations ever committed to tape....RED HOUSE PAINTERS are quite the rosy crucifixion..." Spin - Recommended - "...singer-songwriter Mark Kozelek's principal antecedents--folk lovelies Tim Buckley and Nick Drake--overdosed within a year of each other....[Kozelek] and band are breathing some of the same rarified air as those delicate souls. Beauty and sadness abound, coffered in precarious folk settings..." Musician - "...Kozelek writes in a brutally confessional style that makes '70s singer/songwriters seem like wimps....the band plays in a slow, haunting, disquiet that tightens the focus on Kozelek's vulnerable vocals. A harrowing but often transcendent record..." Alternative Press - "...[RED HOUSE PAINTERS] possess an intimacy that shuts out the rest of the world. The sorrow-absorbing songs here first command your attention and soon after capture your heart..." NME - "...What separates [Mark Kozelek] from the spoilt bastard whinings of other pop miserablists is that he never asks what he's done to deserve the grief....RED HOUSE PAINTERS is one long look back in anguish...and how refreshing a good rib-aching weep can be..." Option - "...you may not want to listen, but you're compelled to....[Red House Painters'] second release contains more good surprises and genuine emotion than a truckload of other so-called `alternatives'..."

The first of the group's two eponymously titled 1993 efforts is a sprawling, remarkable set distinguished by Mark Kozelek's continuing maturation as a songwriter; far removed from the uniform darkness of Down Colorful Hill, Red House Painters offers an expansion of both emotional and musical possibilities. Working outward from the cutting "Mistress" -- included as both a Spartan piano ballad and as a gauzy rock number -- the record moves through a shifting, impressionistic backdrop of textures and sounds; from the luminous folk-pop of "Grace Cathedral Park" to the epic dissonance of the gut-wrenching "Strawberry Hill," the songs resonate with depth and poignancy, and rank as Kozelek's most fully realized collection of compositions. ~ Jason Ankeny|