Kings Go Forth: The Outsiders are Back
Kings Go Forth: The Outsiders Are Back
2010, Luaka Bop
Rating: 6.5
In the late 1990s, a ska revival began to sweep across the United States. Like the years prior with punk, this seemed to be the time that America let ska break into the mainstream. Enter Moon Ska Records, a record label via the Moon Ska record store and ska band the Toasters. Moon Ska was a legendary ska label that put out some of the best third-wave and ska revival records of the time. Mustard Plug, The Slackers, and the Pietasters all had records on the legendary Moon Ska label; however, Moon also put out some of the most sentimental ska-revival junk that ever was pressed to record. There was a healthy dose of mediocrity throughout the label’s many releases, many of these records products of the revivalist culture that promoted and recorded boring, ready-made arrangements, ready to feed the ska revival culture. These records made up the genre’s low point.
In the mid-2000s, a soul revival began to sweep simultaneously through the United Kingdom and the United States. Unlike the punk and ska revivals that came in the 1990s, the U.S. was on the cutting edge of this revival. With artists like Sharon Jones taking the helm, inspired versions of the thick nostalgia on these soul revival records coming from the U.S. still felt significant. There was still something to say on these records, still rhythms to mine, still grooves to explore.
The U.K. roster included acts like Amy Winehouse, Joss Stone, and Adele, among others. Some acts were strongly influenced by the nostalgia of the era, some more diverse, but still drawing from the same influences. These U.K. acts sounded like the Moon Ska version of soul. The hodge-podge of stylistic conventions played like some kind of ready-made version of soul. The stuff fell flat. Classic sounding, yet incredibly contrived.
Which brings me to The Outsiders Are Back, an overly-ripe, ready-made collection of soul revival tunes from an American act. Let me first emphasize that the record label and record cover are a dead giveaway for what you’re going to get here: this is island-influenced neo-soul on a world music label. This is stuff that would be incredible and dumbfounding if it were on a shelf next to your favorite Natural Sounds record found next to the Yoga mats at Target.
Kings Go Forth are a band that use the template of soul revival to bring hippie-flavored nostalgia to your living room. It’s all here—saxophone, ska rhythms, even some Motown strings thrown in for good measure. It’s the stuff that aims to make you feel like you’re vacationing in some hidden, vibrantly-colored villa while listening to a single speaker radio in 95-degrees. The joke in on you though; these guys are from Milwaukee.
I’ll concede, the bonus points in this review come from some pretty great high points in the record made while trying to mimic late-era Motown. “Don’t Take My Shadow (A Tom Moulton Mix)” incredibly peppers a shimmering string line somewhere on the order of mid-1970s Diana Ross or the Jackson 5. “You’re the One” plays with a similar aesthetic, trading in the shimmery string lines for an easy-going groove, evocative of the same era. It is this stuff that we haven’t heard before from soul revival, and it seems to play well for a band like Kings Go Forth that handily plays with the environments of their recordings.
However, it is the creamy center of this record that reveals the true low points of this band and their ethos. “Fight with Love” and “High on Your Love” play like sentimental, tacky stuff out of a soul cover band. Who likes this stuff? The audience steeped in world music and anxious to buy their groceries from the organic aisle at Whole Foods eat sentimentality like this up. It is stuff that feels authentic, but is actually skill masquerading as soul—a deceptive brand of authenticity that the casual listener buys as product and does not receive as art.
So how does one resolve disdain for this music without truly failing this band? The one thing I can appreciate about King Go Forth is their appreciation for rhythm and environmental production. This record sounds like something played out of an old FM radio in the best possible way. The record is incredibly clean past its bettina, with rhythm and horns approached with such skill and appreciation that one cannot help but share in what Kings Go Forth aspires to make sanitary for their audience: real soul.
MP3s and Cover Art via eMusic
