Red House Painters released an excellent two-disc
retrospective in 1999, and Mark Kozelek has kept his Caldo Verde imprint busy
with repackaged and reissued solo and Sun Kil Moon material, but for the most
part, he's a compilation newbie. That might explain why The Finally LP—a 10-song
collection that's mostly covers—feels a little thin and unnecessary. Or
maybe Kozelek is just being a shrewd businessman, and he plans to roll out one
of these every year just in time for the holidays. Whatever the case, there are
some great Kozelek covers and comp contributions floating out there that are
missing from this half-hour disc, which still manages to finagle a whole lot of
beauty out of the brevity. Bookended by a pair of original instrumentals,
including Kozelek's five-minute soundtrack to the short film "Gaping Mouth," The
Finally LP
is a solo-acoustic affair, with its name coming from a Kath Bloom cover and
highlights found in Hüsker Dü's "Celebrated Summer" and "Bedtime Lullaby" from
hip-kid TV show Yo Gabba Gabba! (Maybe next time he'll take a shot at that "party
in my tummy" song). Also notable is "Lazy," which finds the guy known for
reworking KISS and AC/DC songs into ballads flipping his formula and turning
the haunting Low tune into a peppy folk ditty.