Whatever you do, if you’ve never seen Kaki King play guitar, don’t read this yet. Stop reading. Stop right now. Open another tab or another window, go to You Tube and find her ‘Playing With Pink Noise’. Watch it. A live rendition is best. You’ll see why.
Done? Amazed?
Good. We can begin.
Newly-feted by Dave Grohl (“There are guitarists who are good and some guitar players who are f**king good. And then there’s Kaki King”), Rolling Stone and a host of others, this threatens to be a breakthrough time for King. ‘Dreaming Of Revenge’, her fourth full-length effort, does nothing to dispel such an idea.
I’m going to try to review this album without reaching for the Thesaurus but it’s going to be a struggle – I suspect I’ll run out of hyperbole before she runs out of reasons to make me think of more, but that’s probably because she’s a far, far better musician than I am a reviewer.
Firstly, it’s worth noting this collection of complex, fascinating compositions is particularly eclectic – there’s laid back, hypnotic, proggy grooves (‘Bone Chaos In The Castle’), acoustic singer-songwriting (‘Life Being What It Is’, ‘Saving Days In A Frozen Head’), shoegaze (‘Pull Me Out Alive’), post-rock (‘So Much for So Little’, ‘Can Anyone Who Has Heard this Music Really Be A Bad Person?’), the jazzy off-kilter (‘Montreal’, Air And Kilometres’) and plenty more besides. All of it is underpinned by King’s completely undeniable musical talent and, whenever a track threatens to drift or lull, another virtuoso secret is revealed to pull everything back into line.
It might be easy to sit down in the muso chair and stroke one’s beard in time to ‘Dreaming of Revenge’, marvelling at the musicianship and songwriting skills on show, but that would be to recognise only half of its appeal. King has an ability to write songs that can not only showcase her talent, but resonate in the heart as well. There is an emotional quality to what she has created that that resounds long after the album’s closing track.
Restlessly inventive, supernaturally creative and endowed with an exceptional musical gift, Kaki King, in ‘Dreaming of Revenge’, has recorded an album that showcases the continued development of her burgeoning talent.
In short, it fucking rules. Don’t need Roget for that one.
Top Tracks: Buy it and make your own choices.
Released 30/06/08 on Cooking Vinyl
