Two years on from the critically acclaimed KC Rules OK, King Creosote has moved from the fringe of folk music where he’s found himself and into the mainstream with Bombshell. Creosote fans needn’t worry too much though, his twisted way with words is still apparent, he’s just added a touch of sheen to proceedings instead.

“It wasn’t a particularly sunny day” may not be the most barn-storming way to start an album called Bombshell, but the King wouldn’t have it any other way. The soft strings and his velvety smooth voice full of Scottish lilt, Leslie gently starts everything off. Gone are the slightly skewed arrangements of KC Rules OK, this is an altogether more rounded and smoother effort.

The smart and upbeat arrangement around Cowardly Custard hides a darker undercurrent. The lyrics bitter, twisted and not exactly flattering about the main protagonist, ending the song with the murder-tinged “And it’s good riddance”. The album as a whole features this ying and yang approach. The beautiful folk melodies float on a sea of bile, hard feelings and lost loves. Spystick sounds like something Babybird would write, an haunting and dark tale of stalking and unrequited love. The sinister guitars run parallel to Creosote’s gentle vocals that deliver the lyrics so dispassionately and matter-of-factly as to be positively scary.

Whilst this isn’t challenging the boundaries of folk music or bringing anything particularly original to the current British obsession with acoustic, folk-tinged music, it doesn’t matter. It’s a beautifully written and played album that shows that King Creosote is now no longer part of the British underground, but part of something a lot bigger. The bombshell is that it’s taken him this long.
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Links
King Creosote [official site] [myspace] [buy it]