| Track: | Rating: | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. The Train | | | | | |
| 2. (Thinking And Wondering) What I'm Gonna Do | | | | | |
| 3. Sometime | | | | ||
| 4. A Box | | | | | |
| 5. Looking For Love | | | | ||
| 6. Mississippi Moon | | | | | |
| 7. 67 | | | | | |
| 8. Lies In The Sand (the ballad of...) | | | | | |
| 9. Run | | | | ||
| 10.Fathers | | | | ||
| 11.American Cheese (Jerry's Pianto) | | | | ||
| 12.Picture | | | | ||
| 13.Life Going By | | | | ||
King's X makes for an interesting study in "the definitions of progressive-related musics".
It was around the turn of the decade when I first heard of this band, via a review of Gretchen Goes To Nebraska in Rolling Stone magazine. The reviewer was generally favourable in his assessment of the album, noting that some "progressive rock" elements lurked around the edges. This caused me to become somewhat curious in the group; when I finally heard the album, though, I found that it failed to make much of an impact on me.
In 1992, I saw their performance on Dennis Miller's ephemeral late-night talk show. I was moderately impressed, but was not left in a state of awe. For the next few years, I was vaguely curious as to the group's developments, but took no real notice of their music. This changed in 1996, when I received a free copy of Ear Candy (which, to date, is my only album by the group).
It would be fairly easy for me to define the music contained therein -- decent (not great) alternative rock of a sort that was still profitable at the time of the album's release. Finding its relevance to the world of progressive musics is a less simple chore.
From what I can tell, the group does not have a terribly strong reputation among progressive fans. Some may have been briefly curious in the group, only to drift away once they discovered that the music wasn't quite what they had in mind. The suggestion has been made that they fall to squarely into the category of "ordinary rock", and might well be ignored accordingly.
To some extent, this is a fair assessment. To some extent, it is not.
To judge by Ear Candy -- as well as the fragments that I can recall from earlier years -- there is reason enough to place them as tangentially related to the progressive genre. The band clearly has sufficient chops, even if they aren't stretching the limits of their skills; bassist Pinnick is capable of providing some Claypool-esque moments, and guitarist Tabor can occasionally be heard soloing in a manner not normally associated with alterna-rock radio.
Is it "progressive"? In the sense that many bands of the late 1960s prior to King Crimson, ELP, Yes, etc. were progressive, the answer is Yes -- there is an element of psychedelia to the entire project, and it seems likely that those into non-progressive psychedelia (Hendrix, Allmans, etc) would have a particular appreciation for this sort of thing. Progressive fans of the more traditional sort might be less enthused (especially given that an strong element of '80s American alternative is present as well).
Just as King's X aren't quite progressive, they aren't quite mainstream rock either. They fall instead into a transitional genre -- possibly leading some fans "up", but often tarred with comparisons to their more mainstream compatriots as well. Which may be inevitable, considering.
I can dimly recall reading that the music on Ear Candy is a slight step down from their previous material; I can neither confirm nor deny this, but I can vouch for its status as "okay" rock-oriented material, worthy of neither high praise nor utter condemnation. The strength of King's X is their playing skills; the weakness, quite frequently, is their songwriting. These characteristics tend to cross paths rather frequently, leaving a fair amount of good-but-forgetable material as a consequence. Perhaps it's most accurate -- and most convenient -- just to say that this band never reached its potential.
Anyway, Ear Candy begins with the brooding rock of "The Train", a track which seems fully in tune with the popular college music of its day (or, at least, it wasn't off by more than a year). Elements of power- rock and atmosphere share the struggle for domination; the vocal break in mid-song is quite '60s; the guitar solo has some link to psychedelia. As far as distinguishing features go, however, there simply aren't terribly many.
"(Thinking And Wondering) What I'm Gonna Do" adds a bit of neo- Celticisms to the mix, with generally favourable results; besides this the crisp sound of the musical setting sounds like nothing so much as the music on Kevin Gilbert's Thud album. If only the lyrics could approximate Gilbert, this one might have been something more impressive -- as it is, though, it doesn't really develop much beyond the title. Still, the music is good enough to grant the track a decent rating.
"Sometime" begins with a Primus-esque bass setting, which is to some extent a counterbalancing force against the rather mediocre song. Some hackneyed (and profoundly unoriginal) philosophising works its way into the lyric. Were it not for the musical tricks around the basic song structure, this one would easily fall to a "below average" rating.
The best song on the album is probably "A Box", a track essentially premised in the music of late-'80s alternative music, prior to the exploitation of the genre by the major music companies. Tabor's graceful guitar lines provide the strongest "art rock" presence on the song, though it's really the repetition of the chorus which wins the listener over. The chronic underacheivers come close to shattering their barriers here, it would seem.
Following this, "Looking For Love" takes the listener back to well- crafted mediocrity. The heavy guitars and ordinary rock sound suggest Lenny Kravitz, and the mannerisms of the song only confirm this influence. The bass sound is good enough, and the guitar solo is at least listenable ... but there isn't terribly much to admire here.
"Mississippi Moon" is notable for best one of the other two band members on lead vocals, though I couldn't say which one -- whether Tabor or Gaskill, though, he sounds quite like an Americanized Glenn Tilbrook. As per the group's standard, this is a fairly good alterna-rock number, without anything to make it really special. One may regret the smug inclusion of "tomorrow never knows" in the lyric, but this is ultimately fairly ignorable too.
"67" is another mediocre song performed well, with an extremely Primus-esque bass line and an impressive guitar fadeout. The lyrics, after commencing with a funny line about acid trips, soon shift into the dire realm of "complaining about there being nothing of value on TV, despite the 67 stations" -- does anyone really need to be reminded of this again? With a better setting, this music could be put to good use. Oh well.
"Lies In The Sand" sees the return of the graceful guitar soloing, as well as of the secondary lead vocalist. The track focuses on aspects of religious doubt and charisma, though the listener may wish that the lyrics had been less "non-profound". The music, as per the rest of the album, is fairly good.
"Run" seems to combine many of the overused themes from previous tracks -- vague religious-based lyrics, overly power-based rock (Kravitz influence again), development that never really goes anywhere. As it happens, this song also turns out to be a herald of the mediocrity to come, as many of the final tracks on the album seem as casually produced filler.
The worst track on this album is "Fathers", a well-intentioned description of Pinnick's fragmented family that never really goes anywhere. Proving that the mediocrity can be evenly spread amongst the band members, we are then provided with "American Cheese (Jerry's Pianto)", a rambling story only slightly helped by a few Beatles-esque harmonies in the second half.
"Picture" is one of the few notable songs to be buried this far into the album. The track tells the fairly interesting story of Pinnick meeting both of his parents together for the first time, with some decent alterna-rock backing taking place as well. The treated guitar line works fairly well, though it must be admitted that the longish fade-out doesn't really add much to the track. We are then treated to the sheer filler of "Life Going By", a navel-gazing lyric featuring the secondary lead vocalist again. As always, the guitar backing is decent enough.
I do not know enough about KX to rate EC in comparison to their other work. Still, it seems a safe enough bet that few progressive fans will have much use for the group; the exceptions are quite welcome to check the lads out.
(review originally posted to alt.music.yes on 27 Jul 1998)