King Creosote – Flick the Vs
Well it’s taken me a while to come to this conclusion, as you can tell by the monumental lateness of this review, but this really is a bloody gorgeous album. It seems that the King’s brief excursion back to Fence Records last year has informed a lot of this. Last year he released the excellent They Flock Like Vulcans… which was shot through with fuzzy, lost techno beats and crackling low-fi electronica. It was a meandering record of half-finished ideas, some great and some a little obscure, but it seems to have set the scene for Flick the Vs, in a sense.
There’s no doubt about it, though, this is a tight album. Rarely is it as playful as previous work has been, but the loose experimentation of Vulcans has been reigned in to produce a short, sharp record of coherent songs with not an inch of flab on them anywhere.
I am not in love with all of it, however. Songs like Coast on By seem to be a hangover from the pop excursion of Bombshell and, whilst I liked Bombshell, that approach seems slightly at odds with the rest of this particular album. Then again, had he not included it I might well have been complaining about the pace not being varied enough, and you can’t have it both ways. This particular song, simply, doesn’t really appeal to me. Camels Swapped For Wives, on the other hand, could also be a Bombshell song, but it’s one which works really nicely in the context of this record.
For the most part, however, this is the wry, melancholy King Creosote we all know and love. In amongst the whispers of distorted electronics are simple acoustic ballads, giving the record a really nice balance of textures. Most importantly, however, this album contains an obvious handful of King Creosote classics. No-one Had it Better is an outstanding opener, Nothing Rings True is aching, Rims is bizarre, but brilliant, No Way She Exists… it goes on. Not bad for an old timer. I’m not sure why it took me a while to get used to though, but it definitely did. I got there in the end, though.
King Creosote – No One Had it Better
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King Creosote – Nothing Rings True
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On the nose.
I Listened. *meh*. Left it a week. Listened again. *hmmm*. Listened a few more times. Like it a lot.
Nice review Matthew, it’s good but it’s still not that elusive classic which I reckon he has in him. Can’t get enough of ‘No one had it better’ though, probably my favourite song this year, as it reminds me of Homegame, I’m still suffering from Anstruther-withdrawl symptoms
how do I get a fancy wee picture up?
DC – yup, not sure why, but same for me.
Peenko – if you want control of it yourself then you’ll need to get yourself a WordPress account. Alternatively, you could just email me one and hope I don’t monkey about with it.
I don’t know about classics eluding him. Rocket DIY? That’s a pretty nigh-on perfect album.
And I blame Milo for the No-one Had it Better/Homegame fixation. Him and his damn video.
Wordpress you say, will have to look into that, I’m stuck in the dark ages with my blogger account. If you would be so kind as to stick a ppic up that’d be dead nice, even if it does make me look like a dick. If you don’t wanna abuse me then I’d like this please http://tiny.cc/6N38p
Rocket DIY is great, but still not a classic, in my eyes at least
I’m loving this. It’s certainly album du jour on my iPod at the moment.
Camels Swapped For Wives is a beautifully heartbreaking song, succesfully combining a sense of outer toughness and resilience with the tenderness, sadness and compassion found at the core of the song and its subject, which I think probably reflects that of the songwriter.
I like Coast On By a lot too, some of the lyrics clunk a bit, but KC does acknowledge that clunkiness in the chorus. It’s a wry old gambit that may or may not work in itself, but either way it’s a small part of an otherwise irresistible little song.
There’s no way the knockabout ska sax on No Way She Exists would get past the drawing board with most bands, but KC’s been brave enough to include it, and it really does bring the song to life, making it another stand-out for me.
Rims is a fantastic little bit of country-alt-folk (can you have that?). Its pastoral rhythms and cheeky lyrics perfectly capturing the adulterous adventure they refer to, before the contrary closing coda begins. Is that techno?
I must admit this is the first time I’ve spent a protracted period of time in KC’s company, and it’s proving to be most rewarding. We should do it again soon.
It is a great album – surprised you don’t like Coast On By Matthew, it is the most immediate song on the album and maybe the other songs are more growers so maybe that’s why it stands out a bit.
It is a slightly perplexing at first though, when I reviewed it I was v. close to giving it 5 stars, v. v. close but because I agree that it’s just a whisker off the classic album he’s destined to make I left it at 4. Bombshell may well be a 5 star album for me though, but again it took me a while to realise how great it was. Anyway I hate star ratings.
p.s. It’s less down to my video than the fact that KC’s closing song of Homegame was an epic 15 minute + version with every bugger on vocals I reckon!
p.s. I must sort a picture too. WordPress here I come..
dylan was sweet enough to pass his copy on to me and i can’t stop listening either – i love this album
dangit! I hate when you all like something this much, it always means spending more $ on my end! haha, thanks for the suggestions xoxo
Get yer $s out fer the lads, Tart!
You know you wanna!
Actually, you for one will love this.
Oh, that’s a temporary lend, Shon!
Rhian’s waiting for it!
:p
Haha bless ya Dylan, I’m usually hearing that money phrase the other way round
Where’s the copy that i was going to get?
That can be fixed the next time I see you in the pub, old chap.
I know its temporary – i shall return it promptly and invest in my own copy
Heehee!
I feel bad now.
I’m a big KC fan so it somehow feels appropriate that you posted a review of his latest album on the day that my son was born….and we called him Matthew (coincidence, of course). Don’t suppose you know where I can get any of his early CD-R’s do you? The Fence shop sold out ages ago, but surely someone has some copies (for sale or upload?).
Great blog BTW, just wanted to say thanks as I’ve been lurking for a while…