The Williamsport Guardian: Kaki King and The Raconteurs

As mentioned earlier, I write bi-monthly music reviews for a local independent newspaper, The Williamsport Guardian, typically reviewing several albums each column, as well as commenting on local musical performances and events. Because I've been receiving a lot of requests for these reviews, and as far as I can tell they are not as yet published online, I've decided to begin posting them here. The newspaper itself is always well-written, attractive, and full of interesting insights-- AND free-- so be sure to grab a copy if you notice it some where. Anyway, here goes:

Kaki King: Dreaming of Revenge (May 2008)

Kaki King’s innovative approach to guitar playing—percussively striking the strings and body of the instrument as well as incorporating techniques typically associated with the electric guitar into her acoustic playing—is shadowed only by her innate melodic sensibility, allowing her to create music of staggering beauty while at the same time displaying her technical virtuosity. On her newest album, the dazzling Dreaming of Revenge, King explores areas of sonic experimentation only hinted at by her past endeavors, incorporating strings, electric guitar, and vocals into her largely acoustic music. Unexpectedly, from this experimentation emerges the most accessible album of King’s career, the dramatic strings and deft guitar playing joining to create music that defies typical industry classification, but remains uniquely melodic and approachable. Like her 2006 album, ...Until We Felt Red, Dreaming of Revenge sees less of King’s characteristically percussive acoustic guitar, and more of her virtuosic fingerstyle playing, employing the rich sounds of undistorted electric guitars in pieces such as the plaintive “Can Anyone Who Has Heard This Music Really Be a Bad Person” and the atmospheric “Sad American”, sacrificing her typical displays of technical prowess for the more solemn illustrations of melodic motifs. Her technical virtuosity is represented, however, as throughout the album there are dazzling displays of instrumental inventiveness and technical skill, most notably in the excited “I Need a Girl Who Knows a Map”, a three-minute guitar opus that sees King revisiting her characteristic techniques of frenetic fingerstyle and percussive tapping, showcasing both the technical artistry of her playing and the inspiration of her compositions.

Though her shy, self-conscious voice has been present in her music since 2004’s Legs to Make Us Longer, King really emerges as a singer on this disk, lending her plaintive, wavering voice to several songs, including the more traditional acoustic ballad “Life Being What it Is”, a striking departure from her regular repertoire that finds King singing delicately over a bed of acoustic guitar, arpeggiating softly while occasional organ flourishes and slide lines highlight the fragility of the arrangement. King sings with the reluctance and insecurity of an untrained vocalist, her quavering, uncontrolled singing lending innocence and authenticity to her calm, confident guitar playing. On the melancholy “Saving Days in a Frozen Head”, King layers her voice in the same way she layers her guitars throughout the album, creating delicate harmonies that settle softly over her carefully orchestrated guitar.

Though revisiting some of the musical ideas she has explored in the past, Kaki King remains refreshingly original, combining influences as diverse as electronica, folk, and ambient music with virtuosic mastery of her instrument to create music that defies typical song structure and industry expectations. Dreaming of Revenge is a document of a master working within her art, making music that is astoundingly unique and compositionally innovative, but also entirely approachable and comprehensible, and with none of the usual esotericism of other avant-garde artists.


The Raconteurs: Consolers of the Lonely

Like their debut album Broken Boy Soldiers, the Raconteurs continue their campaign of garage rock revival on Consolers of the Lonely, again combining the pop sensibilities of Brendan Benson with the raw modern blues and off-color humor of Jack White. When coupled with the band’s explosive rhythm section, this odd pairing leads to the bombastic humor of “The Switch and the Spur”, an ironically dramatic ballad that employs mariachi trumpets and mournful piano, as well as to the sparse blues of “Top Yourself”, an impassioned Delta shuffle modernized through White’s scratchy distortion. The title track, a mismatched collection of conflicting riffs and opposing personalities, is deliberately careless in its composition, celebrating its indecisiveness with aggressive drums and heavily distorted guitar, the radically different voices of White and Benson playfully conversing with one another through conflicting melodies and skewed lyrics. The organ-dominated “Rich Kid Blues” sarcastically laments the unique plight of a man who’s never known hardship, cycling through energetic garage rock, Allman Brothers influenced improvisation, and weary blues. The adventurous ballad “Carolina Drama” is cinematic in its scope and daring in its musicality, as overdriven slide lines and dramatic organ surges complement the raw, sneering quality of White’s vocal before dissolving into the eerie sensitivity of the refrain, then intensifying as White continues his story of violence and revenge.

Although never taking themselves too seriously, the Raconteurs have again created a unique experiment in modern blues and early rock-and-roll, infusing their musical experimentation with swatches of humor and playfulness. Consolers of the Lonely is a bold step towards merging the musical traditions of an antique generation with the standards and conventions of contemporary music, modernizing the classic blues and rock-and-roll of a lost era through biting distortion, impressive musicianship, and the melodic sensibilities of pop music.