Velour Recordings
2008
Dreaming Of Revenge
About This Album
Four albums in, guitarist and songwriter Kaki King is pulling another switch-up. At 28, she's already assembled a formidable body of work, with each recording sounding different than the last, all the while keeping an instantly identifiable sound. This time out she's working with veteran producer/engineer Malcolm Burn (Chris Whitley, Patti Smith, Lisa Germano, Charlie Sexton, Blue Rodeo, Iggy Pop) behind the boards. King mixes up her attack with seven instrumentals and seven vocal cuts. She plays guitars (including pedal steel), keyboards, and drums, with a small host of collaborators. The sound is warm and full here; there is a sense of detachment that her previous recordings don't have -- which is part Burn's trademark sound that he developed while working with Daniel Lanois and part her increasing familiarity with a recording studio. The instrumental cuts work best, of course, since King's voice is limited in its range, scope, and ability to express the considerable emotional content of her songs. Here too, however, there is improvement, where she doesn't feel the need to project her vocal so far above the instrumental mix. Still, as a lyricist, no matter how direct she gets, there is a sense of clumsiness and lyric-as-afterthought in tracks that have some real weight, like "Life Being What It Is" and "Saving Days in a Frozen Head.
Track List (try tracks 2,3,4,5 and 6)

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.