Purveyor of dour, caustic songs since 1992, erstwhile Red House Painter Mark Kozelek has yet to garner the midlife kudos of a Will Oldham or a Bill Callahan. Benji, roughly his 13th album, might well be this difficult artist's most direct work, possibly the most devastating this career melancholic has ever penned. Benji has a high body count – uncles, second cousins, murderers, all true stories – while Dogs packs in so much detail of the young Kozelek's sexual fumblings your toes dislocate. The songs all interconnect, Oldham guests and Kozelek declares his love for his borderline-abusive father and Led Zeppelin's slower songs (and his disdain for Nels Cline). Kozelek, it seems, has nothing left to hide, or lose: the effect is utterly riveting.