Album: Sun Kil Moon, Among The Leaves (Caldo Verde)

After two dozen albums in two decades, Sun Kil Moon's Mark Kozelek remains as melancholy as ever.

Pondering his lot backstage in "Sunshine in Chicago", he observes, "My band played here a lot in the Nineties when we had lots of female fans and f***, they all were cute/Now I just sign posters for guys in tennis shoes". Among The Leaves is full of such self-deprecating reflections on the troubadour lifestyle, equal parts apologias for bringing home STDs and glum self-absorption raised to mordant humour, his laconic baritone set to waves of acoustic guitar fingerpicking that recalls Jose Gonzalez and early Leonard Cohen; however bleak, there's no denying the delicate mood created by his charm.

Download: Sunshine In Chicago; Track Number 8; The Winery