Kaki King - Dreaming of Revenge

MOGstars: 7/10 Shredding the guitar rulebook (no pun intended) Kaki King has cut a niche for herself amongst the knowing world of classical stringpickers, by ignoring all conventions she has become the freakish darling of the acoustic guitar with her combination of fret tapping and slap-bass style strumming. Yet fourth album Dreaming of Revenge sees her attempting to breakout from this pigeon-hole and continuing down the road she set upon started by previous outing …Until We Felt Red, towards the reams of indie-folk rock. This path has led to a more accessible album – half instrumental, half vocal tracks- and a fuller band helping to flush out this new direction. However King remains tethered to her unique style. Opening track Bone Chaos in the castle is an intriguing combination of six-string and lapsteel, the former giving a sharp kick to the whimsical floating of the latter, a subtle snare drum filling out the gaps in between to create a more solid sound. Clocking in at two minutes thirty it’s an ample chunk to tease the palette of anyone new to King. Second track Life Being What It is, however, kicks straight into the developing singer songwriter vibe. A haunting vocal track glides in above the now subdued guitar with delicate appeal, yet the lyrics prove somewhat of a stumbling block. Lacking the poetry and nonchalance of Rio En Medio, the most obvious musical comparison, the words seem too thought out to simply breeze by, and soon become clumsy – “life being what it is/we all dream of revenge” is a sticky non sequitur, whilst “I stared straight into the sun/ something to concentrate on” is an obviously ungainly rhyme.Lyric failings are more apparent on Pull Me Out Alive, a stream of consciousness patter with soaring chorus, at first glance it appears like a slice of Tegan and Sara, or even the more downbeat moments King’s collaboration mates Northern State. On closer listen however it starts to sound more like their offcuts – vowels are sliced and diced to force words into a rhythm that they will never fit. Such warping is quick to cause a derailment and what is, I must admit, a very promising track buckles under its own weight – an opportunity not quite realised.Such a statement easily expands to the rest of the album. Dreaming of Revenge could easily have marked a watershed in Kaki King’s career, a fusion of her undoubted musical mastery with an outreach to the market cornered by other girls with guitars. And in some ways this is achieved – King’s guitarwork is evidently more than just a kooky parlour trick, or an enticement for aficionados, left to its own it crafts tracks of an impressive beauty; fleshed out by her enlarged band it scintillates and provides a gentler road in for the unacquainted. Even the non-instrumental parts are not without merit, on the contrary, album closer 2 O’clock avoids the pitfalls of her previous lyrical digressions, instead replacing them with the enchantment of simplicity – although not without a stylish flourish. If constantly close to this level King would easily take her place alongside other acoustic chanteuses, but as it is too often the tracks seem unreviewed and unpolished. Lacking this refinement, the impurities overpower the tones and flavours, resulting in a somewhat corked album.