US SINGER-SONGWRITER Mark Kozelek — Sun Kil Moon — has achieved an extraordinary feat. His new album Universal Themes matches, and maybe even tops, his astonishing 2014 record Benji.

Like his recent work, it seems to be made up of Kozelek’s diary entries set to music. “We talked about John Hughes movies, home ownership and the cost of living in San Francisco and New York,” rambles one line. Elsewhere he talk-sings about watching HBO, eating pizza, observing a dying possum and a fan heckling him about Wilco guitarist Nels Cline. This should all be deeply tedious but in actual fact makes for compelling and heart-breaking music.

With five songs over nine minutes long and some brooding electric guitar work, Kozelek’s Western white-man middle-aged blues throws down the gauntlet to every confessional songwriter working today.