WHAT. AN. ALBUM.
It’s been a difficult year for The King Blues after the very public departures of band members Fruitbag and Johnny Rich (if you’re like me and love a bit of band slating then go here and read Fruitbag’s very public dissing of Itch, and then Itch’s response, here). Loves a bit of gossip, me.
And despite this I’d say this is one of the best albums I’ve heard for ages, and definitely the best release of 2011 thus far. Apparently, they had an album written as early as January but after negative responses to singles like Holiday and then the protests of tuition fee rises and cuts put in places by the coalition government, The King Blues tore up the album and wrote new material.
The album opens with the anthemic, The Last Of Dreamers bridging epically into We Are Fucking Angry. Angry would be an understatement, they sound fucking furious and the track is filled with ferocious riffs and obvious political overtones and it is here you can see where the response to the coalition government most clearly. Itch really belts out the vocals as opposed to his normal relaxed spoken word style. Next up comes the single Set The World On Fire with a chorus catchier than chlamydia and a message that the media is making our lives boring and repetitive. Anyone who knows me can tell you that I’m a cynical bastard who can definitely relate to this kind of message.
My only criticism at this point, and it is also repeated over a fiar few of the tracks on the album is Itch’s insistence to overdub a lot of his own vocals, giving it a kind of reload affect. I really don’t feel it needs it and find it really irritating when I listen to it.
I don’t really get Dancehall, it’s more of an interlude than a song and it gives me images of old school black white films with no dialogue or the music that would accompany a freaks sideshow exhibition. The same is with Shooting Fascists not really sure what it brings to album as a whole but whatever.
Back on track, after Dancehall comes my favourite track on the album, The Future’s Not What It Used To Be. It opens eerily and breaks down into a kind of reggae/dub sound that you might have found of their debut release Under The Fog and old school fans will enjoy this nod back to their old style. The songs reaches its crescendo with a kind of dubstep vibe that drives the song to its climax and which I think sounds sick.
Next comes the bouncy, pop-punk sound of I Want You and I predict this to be a surprise mainstream summer anthem (you heard it here first). Clever lyrics about Robson Green’s sexual preference and a dancey rhythm. Loves it! 5 Different Bottles Of Shampoo has been used in The King Blues live set for quite a while and shares the same spine tingling feeling that What If Punk Never Happened gave me when I first listened to Save The World, Get The Girl. It talks about the empowerment of women and gives some of the best lyrics from the album in my opinion.
Despite its chirpy feel, Sex Education contains a dark message about young people learning about sex from watching pornography and both this and Shampoo have a story to tell. After Shooting Fascists which I mentioned above comes Headbutt which I think is awesome, I just want to repeat what I said earlier about Itch overdubbing every single rhyme on this track. I personally think the mix on the single was far better and think the chorus is weaker with only Itch’s vocals rather than the gang affect that was used previously. It has a Jamie T type rhythm that I think works really well.
Next up comes the only track I don’t really like on the album in Does Anyone Care About Us? I just find it a bit of filler that is really weak compared to the rest of the album. It probably has more impact live and I can imagine the crowd really getting behind the chorus but think it shies away from the rest of the album.
Punk And Poetry ends with Everything Happens For A Reason, a touching song about love and parenthood. I love this track and think that it’s a great way to sign off. Overall, I’d say this a very slick album and hope it propels The King Blues into the stardom they deserve.
Oddly though, while I feel that Save The World, Get The Girl was much more mainstream friendly than this album, I feel that they will get more commercial success with this as they experiment with different genres and styles.
I'm giving this album
5 out of 5
If you like The King Blues you should also check out these bands:
Sonic Boom Six, Random Hand, Crazy Arm
No comments:
Post a Comment