"Please Come Home… Mr. Bulbous"
Metal Blade
By Vinnie Apicella Kings X to me has always been this sort of enigma. The talented trio has always seemed to do more than enough to earn themselves critical acclaim yet never quite enough to achieve little more than slight success in commercially directed mediums. The talented team that features bassist/singer Doug Pinnick and guitarist/singer Ty Tabor, both of whom stepped out on their own prior to last year's "Tape Head," have always worked well together and the combination along with drummer Jerry Gaskill continue to coalesce on this latest "Mr. Bulbous…" release. From the first couple of tracks, there's a sharp quality that persists beyond a melancholic state, edgy and raw-right away I drew a comparison to fellow Metal Blade members Galactic Cowboys-"Fish Bowl Man," seems to speak of being trapped in some way, yet if you're familiar at all with Kings X lyrics, that would be almost too obvious. Usually comfortable sitting a little to the left of center, getting the message is sometimes half the fun-but rest assured there usually always is one standing near the exit sign. "Julia" reaches carefully into the "girl with kaleidoscope eyes" thing during its chorus, but otherwise steers clear of any such pop-friendly fodder as the song goes off trudging in the distance with nary a passing glance to the past. The ten tunes are for the most part easy to digest-there's no real obvious single along the line of a "Black Flag" type… maybe with the sole exception of the catchy "Charlie Sheen…" as one can only wonder exactly where the influence was drawn for this! The sound on "Please Come Home… Mr. Bulbous" overall is fresh, contemplative, radiant and brooding while maintaining the usual Kings X flair for interpretive interplay, roughshod grooves and broken beats… and broken smile. |
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