Sun Kil Moon - Ghosts of the Great Highway (Black Vinyl)

An album as good as 'Ghosts of the Great Highway' should never go out of print. Ghosts continues - even fine-tunes - the work Kozelek did with his former band, Red House Painters.

These songs are virtuously stoic Americana - all shimmery guitars, measured tempos, malevolent moods, and wandering melodies. His voice sounds like Neil Young's, especially in the effortlessness with which he hits the high notes then returns to a lower, earthier texture.

Ghosts is a travelogue of sorts, speeding through the Midwest and the West; in this sense, it's the male equivalent to Lucinda Williams' Car Wheels on a Gravel Road, especially in the imperfect mirroring of physical terrain and emotional geography.

The band Kozelek assembled for Ghosts - Anthony Koutsos (Red House Painters), Tim Mooney (American Music Club), and Geoff Stanfield (Black Lab), along with a few guests - ably but subtly bolster his lyrics and vocals, generating a steady clip that never flags. The result is an album as hypnotic as highway divider lines whizzing past.