Customer Reviews

Junior

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

First things first... I had heard of Kaki King, but really wasn't familiar with her music. After some discusion on a music message board, tolling her virtues, I felt compelled to seek her out and picked this up. Imagine my surprise, even shock, how great this album is. Keep in mind as you read this that I haven't heard any of Kaki King's previous 4 albums.

"Junior" (11 tracks; 47 min.) starts off with a somewhat tentative but intruiging "The Betrayer", followed by a dynamic "Spit It Back In My Mouth" and then an oustanding instrumental "Everything Has An End, Even Sadness". But wait, the best is yet to come. The 6 min. fury of "Falling Day" just blew me away, and my favorite track on here. It is followed by the beautiful pensive ballad "The Hoopers of Hudspeth". I was quite surprised (in the best of way) by the mix of songs as they flow along, with several interesting instrumentals or spare vocal songs. Kaki's guitar playing is outstanding throughout. Several more essential tracks follow towards the end, such as the charging "Doom Head". The album closes with Kaki just on acoutisc guitar on "Sunnyside", a biting kiss-off to a relationship gone wrong, wow.

In all, I can;t emphasize enough how charmed I am with this album. I have no idea how I didn't discover this album any sooner. It surely would've made my top 5 of the best 2010 albums. That aside, what prompted the music message board discussion I referred to earlier is that Kaki King was announced to be playing the MidPoint Music Festival here in Cincinnati come September, and you can bet your last dollar I will be there front and center. So glad I finally discovered Kaki King, better late than never. Meanwhile, "Junior" is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

I bought this album based on my son's recommendation. He saw her performing in San Francisco and told me he had seen a very nice singer/guitar player. After I listened to this cd I had a good surprise to confirm she is a solid guitar player with a beautiful voice and a nice style.
I definitely recommend this album for those who love rock 'n' roll.

This is Kaki taking it to the next level. Reminiscent of Neil Young vs. CSN. You could do the same stale stuff and people would buy it, but let's push the envelope. Love the old Kaki, but embrace the new Kaki. Really good stuff, if you listen closely.

Now don't get me wrong - this isn't a bad album. But I would probably give it 2 1/2 - 3 stars because it's not great. Simply put: it's not Kaki. Or rather, it's not Kaki's old sound. Long gone is the sound she perfected on her first couple albums. This one is even more pop-py and peppy than "Dreaming of Revenge," which I found to be a let-down. I wasn't a huge fan of her "Mexican Teenagers" EP either, so I guess I should have known what to expect from this album, since that appears to be the direction she's chosen.

I was a bit thrown off by the parental advisory sticker on the front of the album - that's not really typical for her music. After listening to the cd, I'm not really sure it deserved the PA warning, but there is certainly some explicit content. It's not so much curse words as it is the general meaning behind songs like "Spit It Back In My Mouth" (yep - it means what you think it means) and "My Nerves That Committed Suicide" (possibly the best song on the album). I was a bit disappointed to hear "Spit It Back In My Mouth" - that's something you would expect to hear on an Amy Winehouse, Katy Perry, etc. pop album. The final song on the album, "Sunnyside," also has the f-bomb a couple times. Otherwise, the album is fairly clean.

The interesting part is that Kaki's lyrics haven't really progressed much since she dropped the instrumental theme to her albums. While the music is pretty well-written (her guitar skills have definitely progressed over time), something just doesn't sound right. I can get over the fact that she's not going to be sticking to the slap-guitar techniques and instrumental songs that won her recognition in the beginning. But throwing a generic-sounding rock band behind mediocre (at best) lyrics isn't what fans have come to expect from Kaki.

Some songs are still excellent. The instrumental highlights (and only 3 instrumental tracks on the album) are: "Everything Has An End, Even Sadness," "My Nerves That Committed Suicide," and "Sloan Shore." Other than these three, only "Hallucinations From My Poisonous German Streets" and "Sunnyside" caught my ear. Oddly enough, "Sunnyside" is the most simplistic song on the album - all acoustic guitar + piano - but it's the only one with where Kaki sings words that you actually believe. The torment in her voice is palpable, and for once, actually fits the instrumentation.

Perhaps we will see her progress on future albums, but unfortunately, half of the songs on this album are completely skippable, with most of the album's highlights being the instrumental tunes.

I've been a big fan of Kaki King, I have all of her previous records (except for the mexican teenagers EP). With Junior, she remains of the best guitarist/instrumental composers around, and I love how she keeps evolving her style. Junior is a great record for any new or old fan.

Like going back to 90s euro rock. This disk has the feeling of a transitional piece, a sorting-out phase for the artist while she tries to find a new creative voice. The artistic risk in changing voices is the loss of artistic integrity. As a transitional work in itself, a window into the artist's struggle to evolve by rejecting what was for something different, I'm not sure it was worth my time to listen. At a certain point one has to stop focusing on the artist's influences and expect something authentic and original. If one is an artist, the creative bit is creating original art - not reflections. So this was a disappointing work in that, for me, it was 90s material, different but not new. Different is not always better even if better is always different.

"simply put: it's not kaki."

i beg to differ, this is kaki. her main influences before discovering her unique guitar technique were the british shoegaze bands of the early '90s. she worships, as do i, at the altars of emma anderson & miki berenyi of lush. this album fits perfectly with her amazing playing & shoegaze influences. i'm enjoying it very much, but it is different than her previous efforts.