King Of Spain are an inescapably British four piece hailing from Balham, South London. Offering up Battleships And Aeroplanes as their much anticipated debut album, the CD is a melting pot of stand-out British musical genres culminating in a tidy, well written album. Although at times it has the occasional stroke of originality, on occasions the album can feel somewhat nostalgic and leave the audience feeling slightly confused.
Opening Tracks NY and Not the Machine
NY opens the album like some sort of indie sea shanty and quite successfully maintains this odd yet appealing feel throughout the entirety of the track. The song is however bizarrely empowering and almost leaves the listener with the smell of camp fire in their nose, and the taste of Scrumpy in their mouth.
It has some really heavy folk elements, and although the track is predominantly light hearted, it is no less striking. Not The Machine’s minor chord base gives the song a real moody feel. The tinny guitars and singer Tom Fleming’s accent give the song a familiar feeling, with a sound that could be described close to something like the Libertines on valium (no pop-culture tabloid references intended) and although well written, has trouble finding a place on the album.
Battleships and Aeroplanes
Battleships And Aeroplanes is well written and irrepressibly British in so many ways. It sems to have been realised as a tip-of-the-cap to the major musical movements in the UK over the last 40 years. Lashings of 80s mod/punk and 90s Brit-pop/indie take centre stage, whilst the 60s folk elements and 70s high-gain guitar rock licks take more of a back seat, but make their presence known at every possible opportunity.
The opening guitar riff to Menagerie is more upbeat and catchy, and it is probably the closest thing to a pop song that you will get (compared to anything else on the album) with some real commercial potential. Bacon on the other hand, opens with a Radiohead-esque style chord structure, but surprises listeners by breaking into an upbeat song that maintains the pace and happy-go-lucky theme all of the way through the track.
Folk Indie and Pop Music
Some might argue that bands have been dining out on this mixture of sounds for years and that this album is nothing original. Folk fused pop/indie is not a new concept, but that is not necessarily to say that it is always done well. On this occasion it works wonders and could easily make King Of Spain the next Coral – on the other hand though, where are they now?
An interesting record that is well worth a listen, although may have some trouble appealing to younger listeners.
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