{"id":65102,"date":"2017-12-15T14:56:43","date_gmt":"2017-12-15T20:56:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/?p=65102"},"modified":"2017-12-15T14:56:43","modified_gmt":"2017-12-15T20:56:43","slug":"king-krule-the-ooz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/2017\/12\/15\/king-krule-the-ooz\/","title":{"rendered":"King Krule: The OOZ"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"English singer and songwriter Archy Marshall (better known as King Krule) attracted a sizeable fanbase following the release of his debut album 6 Feet Beneath The Moon<\/em>, and after several other projects in which he decided to operate under multiple different monikers in order to confuse his fans for literally no reason, he finally came back to the King Krule name and gifted his disciples with The OOZ<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The OOZ<\/em> brings back the very familiar melancholic soundscapes that listeners may recall from Marshall\u2019s last full-length project, with some new garage and surfer rock influences sprinkled here and there in tracks such as \u201cHalf Man Half Shark\u201d and \u201cDum Surfer,\u201d – singles that strayed a bit from Marshall\u2019s usual sound, but fit in nicely enough when heard through the album experience. The OOZ has a bit more to offer beyond new genres, however.<\/p>\n

The three introductory tracks (\u201cBiscuit Town,\u201d \u201cThe Locomotive,\u201d and \u201cDum Surfer\u201d) welcome listeners with the casually dark and lonely sound to be expected from a King Krule album, but a new page gets turned upon hearing \u201cSlush Puppy,\u201d which listens like a desperate cry for help: \u201cMe, nothing\u2019s working \/ With me \/ I\u2019m this worthless you see \/ Nothing\u2019s working with me.\u201d The track brings a new seriousness to Marshall\u2019s music that fans may not have caught before, creating an alarming rupture in the standard King Krule framework. Throughout the remainder of the jazz fusion\/modern R&B laiden tracklist, the only other song that displays this lucidity is the album\u2019s title track, perhaps indicating a fleeting peek into the songwriter\u2019s mental health, which has clearly not improved from his dreary previous projects.<\/p>\n

The OOZ<\/em> satisfies many of the hollow feelings and groovy, pessimistic instrumentals one could expect from a King Krule project, peaking at tracks such as the distressed \u201cSlush Puppy,\u201d the sultry and slow-burning \u201cLogos,\u201d and the hopelessly wandering \u201cLa Lune.\u201d However, to judge an album purely based on its merits would be dishonest.<\/p>\n

The greatest issue The OOZ<\/em> faces is its own length. At 20 tracks long, there is no doubt that the album could have been much less long-winded than it ended up being. There are several tracks that could have been completely dropped, or at least combined with other songs to form at least some sort of sense of progression. That\u2019s the thing about Marshall though – his music has a sense of traveling in no particular direction that often divides audiences. However, as a general rule, there is certainly much fat that could have been trimmed from i. Between the more purposeful tracks, there are these ones that are just sort of there that harm the album\u2019s immersive experience.<\/p>\n

While the act of listening to The OOZ<\/em> from front to back may not be nearly as fluid as many other records this year, that doesn\u2019t take away from the good things it has to offer. As a whole, The OOZ<\/em> delivers what it set out to, with the drawback that it gave a little too much – which is, in any case, far better than the opposite.
\n
\nRecommended If You Like: Beach Fossils, HOMESHAKE, Connan Mockasin
\nRecommended Tracks: 4 (Slush Puppy), 6 (Logos), 8 (Lonely Blue), 10 (Emergency Blimp)
\nDo Not Play: None
\nWritten by Sam Blaufuss on 12\/15\/2017 <\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The OOZ brings back the very familiar melancholic soundscapes with some new garage and surfer rock influences sprinkled here and there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20861,"featured_media":65103,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3235,181],"tags":[4140,7939,7942],"class_list":["post-65102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music","category-music-reviews","category-rock-rotation","tag-king-krule","tag-sam-blaufuss","tag-the-ooz"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/king-krule-the-ooz.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20861"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65102"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65102\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}