King Krule: King Krule EP - Album Review

King Krule
King Krule EP
Rating: Yeah Daddy Make Me Want It

The voice of 17 year old Archy Marshall, once known as Zoo Kid and now King Krule, is in direct contrast to his skinny frame and age, coming out of his mouth in a low growl, all world-weary and ragged, recalling the work of fellow troubadour Billy Bragg. Earlier this year, he blew me away with his single "Out Getting Ribs," which sounded like nothing else on the radio. Taking minimal instrumentation, a coiled, reverb heavy guitar, and overlaying it with his smoky vocals, he immediate became someone to watch. Despite the name change, the basic framework for his songs is still essentially the same, subtly adding touches of keyboards, bass, and 808 drum programming. There is a ramshackle nature to these songs, as if they were recorded on the fly, capturing all the mistakes, crackles and hisses. For someone so young, the lyrics are sadly bleak and uncompromising, showing the effects of social unrest and the economic downturn in the UK.

"Bleak Bake" shuffles over a dub beat and spikes of violins, he wonders why he even gets up in the morning, “Wouldn’t wake up this morning, believe me / This might be your only warning, and you’ll see.”



The most fully formed song on the EP, "The Noose of Jah City," has Marshall crooning over a simple backbeat and chiming guitars, imagining his own death as it were: "My body found, but my soul was left to drown/ Suffocated in concrete."



"Portrait In Black And Blue" begins with the classic line "Spastic gyrations in abbreviated bathing suits," and becomes a jazzy tour de force for Marshall.



At 13 minutes, the King Krule EP is enough to get you interested in a full-length, but just short of being fully satisfying. Two of the tracks, "36N63" and "Lead Existence" come off merely as sketches, which easily could have been removed from the EP or at least worked into something more substantial. I suppose they were included on this release in order to give more heft to the single "The Noose of Jah City," however, instead of highlighting the single, it obscures it. Marshall is very young though, and this release though not the opening salvo I was hoping for, is a bright indication that greater things are going to come from him.

Rating Scale:

Chilfos: masterpiece; coolest thing I've heard in ages.

Woof Daddy: excellent; just a hair away from being a masterpiece.

Grrrr: very good; will definitely be considered for my top releases of the year.

Yeah Daddy Make Me Want It: good; definitely invites further listens and peaks one's interest for more material.

Meh: not horrible, but certainly not great; could have either been polished, trimmed, or re-thought.

Jeez Lady: what the hell happened? Just plain bad. They should hang their heads in shame and be forced to listen to Lady Gaga ad nauseam as penance.

Tragicistani: so bad, armed villagers with pitchforks and torches should run the artist out of the country for inflicting this abomination on the human race.