Ghosts of the Great Highway

Studio album by Sun Kil Moon

Released

November 4, 2003
February 6, 2007 (re-issue)

Genre

Alternative rock, indie folk

Length

58:12 (album)
21:15 (bonus disc)

Language

English

Label

Jetset Records
Caldo Verde Records

Producer

Mark Kozelek

Sun Kil Moon chronology

Ghosts of the Great Highway
(2003)

Tiny Cities
(2005)

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	84/100
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic
Entertainment Weekly	A−
Mojo
Pitchfork Media	8.3/10
Q
Rolling Stone
Uncut

Ghosts of the Great Highway is the debut album by San Francisco quartet Sun Kil Moon, led by Red House Painters' founder Mark Kozelek, who composed all of the lyrics and music on this album. The other members are Anthony Koutsos (former drummer for Red House Painters), Geoff Stanfield, and Tim Mooney.

Three of the album's songs are named after boxers, following on from "Find Me, Ruben Olivares" from Kozelek's debut solo EP Rock 'n' Roll Singer. The band name is also a pun on the Korean boxer Sung-Kil Moon. The opening number is named after Judas Priest guitarist, Glenn Tipton.

Ghosts of the Great Highway was re-issued as a double CD on February 6, 2007 on Kozelek's own label, Caldo Verde Records. The second disc features 6 bonus tracks, including two versions of Leonard Bernstein's "Somewhere," and the instrumental track "Arrival," which was originally recorded for the movie The Girl Next Door. The songs "Carry Me Ohio" and "Lily and Parrots" were featured in the film Shopgirl, where Kozelek also co-starred.

The song "Carry Me Ohio" was listed at #462 on Pitchfork Media's Top 500 Songs of the 2000s list.

Upon its release, Ghosts of the Great Highway received critical acclaim. At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews and ratings from mainstream critics, the album has received a metascore of 84, based on 18 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim."

All tracks written by Mark Kozelek, except where noted.

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Wikipedia