Okay, let’s get one thing straight before we start this review. To avoid any confusion over the matter: I do flipping love Kaki King. I’m not going to pretend otherwise. Seriously, why have so many people not heard of Kaki King? Why are you all not listening to her three previous albums right now as you read this? Why? You should be, they’re absolutely great. In fact if you haven’t heard them I’m seriously suggesting that you stop reading this, open a new tab, order them and then come back. Go on. They’re called Until We Felt Red and Legs to make Us Longer. Get those and then get Everybody Loves You. If you truly deserve to have ears, you’ll at least check those records out.

Anyway, as yet another example of how sometimes the world just fails to make sense, for many people reading this Dreaming of Revenge will be their introduction to the vast talents of Kaki King, which, considering the patent brilliance of her previous three records compared to this one, is actually rather a shame.

There’s more to Kaki King than fingerstyle – let’s get that right, too. Shame on those naysayers and guitar nerds that claim that she lacks the technique of some of the unfathomably skilful contemporaries from the fingerstyle genre. They’re missing the point spectacularly. Her approach to the guitar is just an aspect of her sound; the multi-layered magnificence of Until We Felt Red is proof of that. Kaki King was a drummer before she started playing guitar in New York bars and cafes she’s evolved steadily through different styles in her career, to describe her simply as a guitar virtuoso in light of her most recent offerings would be to do her a disservice. She’s proven that she has the ability to craft infectious and intelligent compositions that borrow from the traditions of everything from classical celtic guitar to blues to post-rock.

What I had built up in my mind before I came to listen to this album, then, was a release from an immensely skilled artist with a proven track record for steady, constructive development into increasingly interesting and intricate sounds. You can probably forgive Dreaming of Revenge for not being quite as incredible as I had allowed myself to hope it would be, but after allowing it to settle, it still doesn’t disappoint. Far from it.

Opener ‘Bone Chaos In The Castle’ eases us in with some of the classic slapping, picking and hammering style that helped to establish Kaki on Legs to Make Us Longer, but she tries something a little bit new with ‘Life Being What It Is’. After tentative forays into vocals on Until We Felt Red, Kaki seems to have moved on from her hauntingly breathy, minimalist vocal style and into… well just plain singing. To be honest, I preferred it the way she used to do it. ‘Life Being What It Is’ and ‘Saving Days in A Frozen Head’ are both examples of Kaki’s new-found vocal confidence and they’re mercifully rare. Kaki’s voice just wasn’t meant for such pedestrian warbling. I don’t want to be unfair however, so I’ll point out that while ‘Pull Me Out Alive’ is one of Kaki’s less adventurous compositions and certainly seems to have popped out of a very familiar indie-pop mould, complete with vocal-led chorus, it’s still a pretty darn good song.

King recovers from this mid-album mediocrity, however by slamming down a handful of aces. ‘Montreal’, ‘So Much for So Little’ and ‘Air and Kilometers’ are utterly brilliant and ‘Can Anyone Who Has Heard This Music Be A Bad Person’ might just be her best track to date. They’re the kind of tracks that really have to be heard to be appreciated. When she’s producing stuff like this, I don’t care about a spot of dodgy singing here and there.

This album manages to showcase Kaki King at her lyric-fumbling worst and awe-inspiring, guitar slapping, crescendo building best. Luckily Kaki’s best is so totally flipping awesome that I can heartily recommend that you invest in this album, only perhaps after you’ve listened to Leg’s To Make Us Longer and Until We Felt Red first.
75%

mp3:> Kaki King: ‘2 O’Clock’

Links
Kaki King [official site] [myspace]