Jesu
Jesu/Sun Kil Moon

Personally, I was very curious about what would come out of this titanic collaboration.

Justin Broadrick meets Mark Kozelek. Opposites attract.

The slow, heavy, and oppressive atmospheres of Jesu meet the stories and thoughts of Sun Kil Moon.

The result is certainly a nostalgic music, rather than depressive. A glance at the past and everyday life.

An album that starts assertively with the combo "Good Morning My Love", "Carondelet", and "A Song Of Shadows": the bittersweet sounds of the "Droning" guitars accompany a loquacious Kozelek, who spits out a thousand words a minute. Practically like listening to Jesu, without Broadrick's voice... it's still a pleasure.

We find "Fragile" serving as a pause between one side of the album and the other, where Kozelek expresses himself solo, embracing his acoustic guitar.

Broadrick plays a lot with Electronic music, offering some sounds from his other projects (e.g., J.K. Flesh and Final), on tracks like "Last Night I Rocked The Room Like Elvis And Had Them Laughing Like Richard Pryor" and "Father's Day". Also on the curious "America's Most Wanted Mark Kozelek And John Dillinger", which recalls the tracks contained in the EP "Why We Are Not Perfect?" with the background arpeggios and that altered bass guiding the voice.

"Sally" takes us back to the early Jesu records, where 7-string guitars are the absolute protagonists. Along the same lines as the initial trio.

When we are about to reach the end, here we are ready to surrender to the soft electronic foundations, clinging to the minimal notes of a piano in "Exodus"... then vent all our tears in the 14 minutes of "Beautiful You", of strong dreamlike Ambient influence.

An excellent album where Mark Kozelek acts as a storyteller with his warm voice while Justin Broadrick gets creative in a 360° exploration, covering much of the sounds that have characterized him throughout his long and colorful career.

Oh, among the album's guests are also some members of Low and Rachel Goswell (of Slowdive).