Kaki King – Junior

By admin on November 18, 2011 — Leave a comment

“King’s playing is awe-inspiring … It’s darn near impossible to resist her charms.” – NME

“She’s fronting a power trio here, managing to harness her breathtaking technique into songs that rock with punkish energy.  Best of all is the Liz Phair-ish Falling Day, with its turbo-driven chorus, but the more delicately structured, if more bluntly titled, Spit It Back In My Mouth runs it close.” – Sunday Times Culture ****

“One of the few female guitar heroes … Dazzling.” – Daily Mail

“Kaki King is a guitarist’s guitarist … Her fifth full album displays none of the show-off tendencies you’d expect from, say, a Satriani or a Vai.  King’s restraint is commendable, using her skills to create interesting sonics rather than pointless pyrotechnics.” – Independent on Sunday

In contrast to her previous records, which featured deep textures and layers, Junior was specifically made with only three musicians in mind – in this case, King, multi-instrumentalist Dan Brantigan and drummer Jordan Perlson. “Prior to this I would have written a lot in the studio and played all the instruments myself,” King says. “This time, I really leaned on Dan and Jordan to help shape the songs and help me get the record written.”

Longtime fans may be surprised to hear a different side of King on this album, with dance-rock tracks such as ‘The Betrayer’ and ‘Spit It Back In My Mouth’. “I really wanted that to be my Cure song,” she says of the latter. “Like how the Cure would write these really happy, jangly songs and the lyrics would be utterly depressing. When I came up with that little groove, I thought this is way too happy, so I changed it to make people depressed!”

From the punk-ish ‘Falling Day’, which sees King rocking a distorted ukulele, to the noisy kick-in-the-gut rocker ‘Death Head’ and the folk-ish ballad ‘Sunnyside’, Junior clearly marks a new musical chapter for King. Her mesmerizing guitar playing continues throughout the album with a few instrumental pieces, such as the electrifying ‘My Nerves That Committed Suicide’. The highlight of the album though, is the aforementioned ‘The Betrayer’, a tension filled song inspired by the 2007 book Agent Zig Zag by Ben McIntyre, which is based on the true story of double agent Eddie Chapman, an Englishman who first spied for the Nazis during WWII then later switched over to the British.

Of her new direction, King says “With this album, I felt like I was doing something for the first time, because I was trying totally different things as far as my (album making) process. I felt like a little kid or novice. It made me feel that I was starting something again.”

As with her previous album, 2008’s Dreaming of Revenge, Junior was produced by Malcolm Burn (Patti Smith, Emmylou Harris) and recorded at his studio in Kingston, New York.