I have tried to stay with Mark, I really have. Even when his material profoundly departed from what he did with Red House Painters & the first Sun Kil Moon, I wanted to see him grow, not just recapture his past. Most of the time it produced amazing results (Admiral Fell Promises and Benji), other times pedestrian (Universal Themes). With this album, he's almost lost me entirely. While I love his covers, it's usually because he rearranges them so drastically they become unique; on "Mark Kozelek Sings" there is little to no attempt to rearrange the original songs. Most of the time, they sound like something you'd hear walking into any bar on a Saturday afternoon. Lastly, being the same age, I have always felt a certain kinship with Mark through his choice of covers: "Send in the Clowns", "Carpet Crawlers", "Onward." Some of the selections on here seem to carry that mantle ("Another Day" and "I'm Not in Love") but are mostly faithful copies of the originals. It's as if Mark is learning to play piano, and wanted to showcase how far he has come in mastering it.

He’s clearly lost his mind.

Mark does an admirable job on these covers. Some have criticized his voice of late but he sounds good here and I like the piano driven change of pace.