KING

imo the dreamy breathy everything-is-backing-vocal style is a necessary aesthetic choice to perfectly attain the subtle narcotic development of each song on the album. have never heard a record before where every song creeps up on me, adding layers to the mix until the whole thing is floating in space

still think Love Song is my marginal favourite but this back end is so strong, have been listening to it this morning

yeah, I agree with Tuomas that the vocals could be more present but it feels more like a feature than a fault

Guys I think it's safe to say that an album calling itself WE ARE KING is not overly concerned with the primacy of individual voices.

This alone makes it both pretty unusual and interesting in the context of contemporary R&B which has for the last decade or so tended to emphasise individual stars, or groups where there's either one dominant force, or everyone gets a star turn.

Actually listening to this again, individual vocal lines are not the point of it all, if you isolate the vocal melodies they are in and of themselves not that interesting, but the harmonies (both vocal and instrumental) are sublime. It's like a beautiful cloud.

This alone makes it both pretty unusual and interesting in the context of contemporary R&B which has for the last decade or so tended to emphasise individual stars, or groups where there's either one dominant force, or everyone gets a star turn.

this is a really good point

Yeah, I can understand the anti-individualist aesthetic on a theoretical level, but on a practical level the combination of that and every tune being sung in the same vocals style makes all the songs on the album sound like each other, with no unique character to each. And I don't think that's a good thing, because this is still a pop record, not ambient music or anything.

Also, while Matt is right that the "star turn" approach to R&B group vocals has been dominant for the last 15 years or so, if you go behind that you can find examples where individual voices and variety of singing styles can work within a more collective ethos: En Vogue, The Jones Girls, The Three Degrees, etc. Though of course KING might not be interested in that kind of approach either... But it means that, to me, this album will not rise to level En Vogue at its best, for example.

The way the three work as a collective instead of letting a singer shine extends to the mix too. I couldn't figure out why "Oh, Please" baffled me, and it's due to how the voices and instruments are mixed as if recorded on the same track. Maybe they are.

Yeah, the mix tends to put the vocals on the same level as the backing track instead of putting them on the front, like you normally do in pop music. This also adds to why they feel so nondescript and samey, because they blend in with the other instruments. Again, this is an approach that can work in other genres, but to me it just sound good on an r&b album.

"it just doesn't sound good"

i would argue that it sounds extremely good, especially on an r&b album that is particularly focused on harmonic collisions, and creating a kind of soft inhabitable space which the emphasis of a singular voice would undermine, and that r&b is not some monolith where this is struggling against the technical achievements of en vogue, of all things

Honestly I love the mix, vox are mixed way too high nowadays imo

i mean i get that you are articulating why the vocal approach doesn't work for you specifically but it seems a weird thing to get stuck on, for me, as it's not like this record would be enhanced by a more isolated and elastic vocal (the closest the album gets is "hey" which i think is fitting bc it is where the record gets sort of reduced to its essence). the design of the vocals within each song makes them even more captivating harmonic vortexes. and i hate to make a like "this record is all and no genre, man" argument but your distinction between pop and ambient feels particularly meaningless here

Brad otm
I feel like it would be SO much worse with a more lead singer/backing vox situation

the album's already kind of a singular achievement to me in that it manages to build an enormous environment that feels like an almost unconscious form of r&b, one captured through layers of dreaming, while also remaining groovy as hell

yep

brad otm, this record creates its own self-contained, immersive world better than anything i've heard since nicolas jaar's early material - you feel like you're in it, and the vocal harmonies & production are very much key to that. i also think that the songwriting, the melodies and the sheer richness of the arrangements preclude it ever feeling samey, even if a lot of those things come into focus only after a few listens. (the moment when that bassline comes in on the extended version of "supernatural", the way that the horns only come in after the 5 min mark, this record gives so much so gradually)

I filed my review yesterday and made some of these points. I love the album but can understand how it can turn into a beautiful trance.

it starts as a beautiful trance that unfolds into loving every discrete element!

heaven forfend we have any rockists left on ilx but the whole 'they play all the instruments and produce it' aspect of this unearthly masterpiece is surely catnip for traditionalists and progressives alike - it doesn't make the music any better when taken out of context but it makes KING an even more satisfying and exciting proposition imo. their next album could be...anything

This album is good, but I must agree with the sentiments that it all kind of rolls together into one hourlong wash of a song.

Excellent deep house offers a useful point of comparison for this album, I think.

only now realizing—guess what amazing song has a paris strother co-write

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsfT7QhnGj8

AHHHHH that was one of my absolute favourites from that album.

wtf why didn't i know they were originally from minneapolis???

Great review Alfred!

The other reference point that occurred to me was Rene and Angela's "You Don't Have To Cry".

lol i literally just compared the record to "your smile"

Great review Alfred!

The other reference point that occurred to me was Rene and Angela's "You Don't Have To Cry".

― Tim F, Wednesday, February 10, 2016 3:59 PM (

Thanks, Tim. Are you trying to kill me with that reference?

IDK is that a good thing or bad.

An even better one (apart from "Your Smile"! OTM brad) is Angela Winbush's "Angel", minus the massive hollering.

Alfred, I'm not in the know — please share a link to your review.

IDK is that a good thing or bad.

The agony of not catching it, especially since I'm about write a long piece on Angela Winbush.

Austin: http://www.spin.com/2016/02/review-king-we-are-king/?utm_source=share-fb&utm_medium=button

can't read your review until the pile of garbage i wrote about them is shaped into something worthwhile but i promise i will afterward alfred

Cool; a very flowing and heady review: a perfect match for the music.

especially since I'm about write a long piece on Angela Winbush.

Alfred casually outshining all other pretenders ITT.

yeah that is my dream piece alfred, i would only trust u with it tbh

I'll try my best to take home the gold

i was going on amazon to see about buying the CD but it linked to this:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00007AJQQ?qid=1455153396&ref_=tmm_acd_swatch_0&sr=8-1

They're playing in Mpls in a few hours! The sisters are DeLaSalle grads of '04 but this is their first big Twin Cities show. They were just on the radio talking about Nintendo's "Punchout" and Cocteau Twins. I'll try to report again from the other side...

i have listened to this record a couple of times and mannnnnnnnn native land is already one of my favorite songs ever

isn't it?

its like tamales at christmas 2 me

I've fallen hard for "In the Meantime," such an incredible bass line and chord progression

thing is, that is all of the songs, all of the songs have incredible bass lines and chord progressions

"Native Land" is definitely my favorite right now

They're very light touch when it comes to bass, so when they do turn it up you really notice it. The bassline on In The Meantime really purrs.

The chord progression on The Story is incredible and really reminds of something. Like I think it's widescreen techno of some sort but I dunno.

In the Meantime also has that ridiculous chord change on the third line of the verse

Saw them last night in Minneapolis. They were really amazing. Hey got the biggest reaction, there were a lot of people singing along to it which was really moving. I was disappointed they didn't do Native Land but that was the only thing I'd change.

Interesting about the Cocteaus mention. It occurred to me on first listen that some vocal nuances are Ella filtered through late-period Liz, which seemed an unlikely influence.

Great to read through this thread after coming to the conclusion that this is one of my favourite albums ever. And I've been listening for a week! So many astonishing moments, one that thrills me to no end is that middle bit in "Red Eye," when the vocals start to modulate towards something almost unearthly. Their command of harmonic structure and arranging there is unbelievable. Great album to listen to in sequence but I've also enjoyed listening in shuffle with a long crossfade time, leading to ever more mysterious segues and transpositions. What a wonderful obsession this has become!

this album is completely addictive

oh, please!

i listen to this album ~3 times a day