The King Blues bring some backstreet Laaaahndan reggae flavour to punk rock with their single “Mr Music Man”, a mellow and slightly cheeky lament about never being able to find somewhere playing the tunes you love best.
Before you flinch away reflexively, though, don’t worry – this isn’t the bright and pointless ska-punk we got bombarded with around the millennium. Instead, The King Blues have an more authentic take on the sound that The Clash made their own the first time round – simple lazy reggae chords and white-boy ghetto slang, with lyrics about squandering your last few coins on beer and weed before trying to blag into a gig or a club.
Frontman Itch has a voice that isn’t going to please everyone, but one thing is for certain - he sounds more authentically “London” than all the middle-class stage-school kids currently clogging up the charts.
“Mr Music Man” is a single out of season; its mellow off-beat guitar chucks and loping bassline sound like refugees from a warm sunny place quite unlike London in the winter. But perhaps that’s the best reason to listen to it - to give The King Blues a chance to let a punky chunk of sunshine into the world.
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Posted in Music reviews |
Tags: political, punk, reggae-punk, ska
