The Duke & the King – Nothing Gold Can Stay
There is a truly atrocious back-story to the creation of this album and the split of Simone Felice from the Felice Brothers, but it is horrible and personal and I am not going to go into it. It is partly because of that back-story, however, and partly because of how much I like the Felice Brothers themselves, that I really wanted to like this album. I don’t, however, and there’s no escaping it, so there you go.
Why don’t I like it? Well it’s just soft and rather wet Americana-pop I suppose. The summery harmonies and the laid back rhythms just don’t grab me at all, and in fact seem really lifeless and lacking in backbone. There’s even something of a soft rock balladry about some of it, like the atrocious Summer Morning Rain, which really is not something I enjoy at all.
Lyrically it’s actually a rather heart-wrenching album, but for some reason the music used to convey the sentiments themselves just doesn’t quite have the right impact with me. I guess I just find the sound to be smooth and slightly sugary, which is really not my aesthetic to begin with, so given that none of the tunes really stick in my head and make me want to hum them I think the sooner me and this record part ways the better, sorry.
The Duke & the King – If You Ever Get Famous
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The Duke & the King – Summer Morning Rain
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Simone is probably my favourite vocalist on the Felice Brothers stuff to date. His voice expresses a very natural and open sounding sense of empathy and vulnerability.
That distinctive voice is still present on these two tracks, but I agree that it’s let down by dull, predictable and over-polished musical arrangements.
Shame, it sounds as if they’d left the instrumental performances a little more raw this could have been great.
Matthew – from what i’ve heard of this i really like it…..and it’s not soft rock…it’s the west coast sound that i imagine they are going for.
Soft rock would be Every Rose has it thorn.
Dylan – i had written a long rambling repost to your comments, then thought better of it cos i knew that you response would be dull, predictable and over polished….i say this with all of the best intentions, honest!
raw? as in meat?
But i do agree the guys voice is the best out of the FB’s
BTW i’m not meaning to be overly harsh….
(how many fucking caveats can I put on this post)
Raw just like as in meat actually.
I personally like a nice, fresh, juicy fillet steak, griled quickly over hot coals and served rare.
I suppose the other end of the spectrum would be bland, mass-produced, sterilised, sanitised, gentically-engineered and artificially flavoured beef paste.
The music here is closer to the beef paste end of the spectrum than the fillet steak.
Sometimes I feel Matthew’s taste in music takes things a little further and he’s chasing live cows around the field taking bites out of them, but that’s another story.
Basically, never mind the sound or the production, the songs simply don’t make me hum along or tap my feet, and there’s not much you can do to get around that.
hats off…..
…to Dylan that is
I’m a vegetarian.
I’m hungry.
Quite like this actually, it’s not going to change my life but I think if it caught me in the right mood I’d find it pretty enjoyable.
Bart, where I’ve referred to beef, just substitute the word ‘Carrot’.
The story still hangs together.
Particularly the bit about Matthew.
Fucking cows.
Particularly the bit about Matthew……Fucking cows
made me laugh
Even date rape would make you laugh.
depends
i heard this a while ago, and had exactly the same reaction – i have been following the felice brothers since the debut ‘tonight at the arizona’ (which has some of my favourite songs on it), and like simone’s vocals, but i just couldn’t sustain any interest at all in this album – to me it was confusingly bland (and suggested that perhaps simone wasn’t a songwriting force within the felice brothers)
Never was a fan, never understand your collective fascination with this genre, but the part about Matthew fucking cows was worth a giggle, low-minded creature that I am. And Dylan, you can cook for me any time, sweetie, xoxo
Interesting.
I much prefer this to the Felice Brothers’ new one, which I find very boring indeed. In fact I think they lost their spine when Simone left.
I didn’t really get the Duke and The King til I saw the kitchen rehearsals on youtube – then I could make sense of the live reviews which seem to be consistently great.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PGud_ooLqY
PS How cool to be next to Drunk Country in the line!
That is a really nice video actually, either despite or because of being so simple.