Red House Painters

Old Ramon

(Sub Pop)

This is a typical Painters album in that the songs take a bit of time to bleed into the fabric of daily life, but then they start to take form in your head and certain riffs or lyrics ('LA sparkles on the ground/LA glitters on the ground') get stuck on repeat in your subconscious.

Old Ramon (named after a children's book that frontman Mark Kozelek took to) has languished in 'major-label purgatory' since 1998 and has finally been released on Seattle's Sub Pop label. The presence of Kozelek's voice at the microphone has now fully emerged and is presented right up front with absolutely no reverb. Back in the early days of their career (Red House Painters came out with their first soaringly epic album Down Colorful Hill in 1992), Kozelek was still uneasy with the idea of an audience, and it was as if he sang facing the wall and it echoed off . . . You still get tiny glimmers of that on Old Ramon.

Most importantly, the Painters still manage to deliver what fans crave most - emotional intensity. There's a pretty remarkable finalisation of Smokey, which appeared on the Shanti Project compilation in demo-form two years ago. A wistful Void also comes close, and the more it's listened to, River feels gentle despite some grumbling guitars in the background, both acoustic and electric. Michigan has got the rat-a-tat-tat drumming of early Springsteen and the aching whine of the pedal steel, so fans of bands like Low, Idaho or the American Music Club might also enjoy these chaps who hail from San Francisco.