king friday - The American Idle

King Friday 

The American Idle
self-released; 2013

4.0 out of 5

By Matt Jensen

King Friday releases a lot of music and all of it is good. Their EPs I Wanna Hold Your Gland, Let Him Eat Cake (Songs of Birds) and This is Supposed to Be Fun all received ratings at or above 4.0 from our website. Their latest EP entitled American Idle continues with their seemingly endless supply of well-written classically minded songs. In fact this is actually the best so far. The songs while still short feel more substantial and seem less like the skeletons that sometimes existed on their previous efforts. This record also sounded a bit better from a quality perspective. The low end seemed to sound more refined as well as the drums sounded clearer and not as muddled. 

The album starts with “Something Worthwhile” which has some strings in the beginning that sound a bit like a sitar. I didn't know if this was a new style or what, but things became a bit more familiar when the bass, drums and vocals kicked in. As usual Sweeney’s voice carries the song and in my opinion given time will gain a larger audience. “One Track Mind” tips its hat to some of the early Beatles material and has one of the catchiest choruses in recent history as Sweeney sings, “ooh possibility get away from me.” The quite humorous “The Secret To Life Is Being Unafraid To Suck” is a sparse song containing acoustic guitar and vocals. Just the dichotomy of the serene singing of Sweeney and the lyrics is great. “The American Idle” showcases some technical proficiency and creative piano playing. One of the highlights of the album was “Peter Pan.” Nothing too out of the ordinary here just a good song. I really enjoyed all the cascading notes on “Make Shift Art Space.” The song was vibrant, upbeat and had a great drumbeat. Another poke with subtle humor is “Trying To Write A Masterpiece Is No Fun” while “The Bubble Song” closes the album with a couple of fine sounding vocal harmonies (if not harmonies than some sort of doubling effect).

King Friday just seems to get better with time and I am always excited to hear something new from them. This album hits new highs as the songs are more consistent and not one of the songs misses its mark.

Become A Fan

bandcamp