Sun Kil Moon is the new project of respected songwriter Mark Kozelek, former helmsman of the mopey rock outfit Red House Painters. Its first album, released recently on Jetset Records, generally defies categorization—folk, country, psychedelia and rowdy rock ‘n roll are all present, mingling in 10 nostalgia-soaked songs that are distinctly flavored, yet coherent as a cocktail. And Ghosts of the Great Highway is made to be sipped. Kozelek’s languid, Neil Young-tinted vocals snuggle under a blanket of subtle, pitch-perfect guitars that speak to occupants of dim corner tables in half-empty bars.

If the album title isn’t sufficiently revealing, Ghosts of the Great Highway finds Kozelek obsessed with the passage of time. He wades simultaneously through his own life and through history, grasping for points of convergence and feebly pinning them to images of the eternal. On the beautiful opening track “Glenn Tipton,” vignettes of a frustrated romance, heroic boxers and the passing away of a friend follow each other without segue. Primarily an acoustic track, a second guitar, bass and drums enter subtly near the finish. The theme of the tragic boxer, seen again in the distortion-soaked “Salvador Sanchez,” emerges for Kozelek as a metaphor in making sense of his own bittersweet memories. Once a fighter steps into the ring, he has at best half control—his ambitions are as easily frustrated by the intentions of the other fighter as by chance. In looking at his past romances, Kozelek seems to perceive an analogous relationship: chance occurrence and the butting of wills make no result certain.

In “Carry Me Ohio,” Kozelek sings “Sorry that/ I could never love you back/ I could never care enough/ in these last days.” While he may have been ambivalent about his romance at the time, clearly he cares in retrospect. A few listens to this album of thoughtful, languid songs will make you care, too. It will also rejuvenate you to step back into the ring.