Published on Jul 24, 2000
King’s X is a band that remains an enigma to me.
On one side, you had the trio – guitarist/vocalist Ty Tabor,
bassist/vocalist Doug Pinnick and drummer/vocalist Jerry Gaskill –
exploring both a more spiritual side to themselves (without ever
proclaiming themselves as Christian rock) as well as worshipping
the Beatles in their songwriting. On the other side, you have a
band who is desparately trying to move away from the Christian rock
tag and trying to capture the glory they’ve been fighting to claim
for 20 years.
King’s X is an enigma to me because, whenever I pick up a new
release by them, I never know which band I’m going to be listening
to. And I admit I’m a few albums behind the times (though I still
have
Tape Head to download from EMusic.com – relax, RIAA, it’s
paid for). So I admit to being at a little bit of a disadvantage
when it came time for me to listen to their latest release
Please Come Home… Mr. Bulbous.
What I heard was a very pleasant surprise. I now heard a band
who were not taking themselves so seriously as to make their music
seem sterile, and while there is still the adoration of the harmony
vocal, it was used extraordinarily well. This is a straight-out
rock album that challenges you to throw away any preconceived
notions of who you think King’s X is and demands you take this one
on its own terms.
It’s not always the easiest thing;
Please Come Home… Mr. Bulbous is the kind of disc that you
need to listen to at least twice. I actually stopped the album
midway through, thinking I had missed an intregal part of the
band’s strategy, and started over from the beginning. Turns out I
was right to give the first half another listen, as I heard new
things to bask in that I hadn’t heard before.
There is still a little bit of sonic weirdness on this disc,
such as the rambling spoken-word break in “Fish Bowl Man” and the
foreign language intros of several numbers. But they keep this to a
minimum and focus on the music – smart move. Tracks like “Julia,”
“Smudge” and “She’s Gone Away” all shine brightly, daring to
suggest that King’s X could well be back on their way to the level
of fame they were at around the time of
Faith Hope Love a decade ago – that is, if they got the
right breaks.
There are some tracks that need to grow on you, such as the
previously-mentioned “Fish Bowl Man” and “Marsh Mellow Field,” but
given enough time and attention, they quickly prove themselves to
be well worth the effort. The disc closes out in a strange way with
two parts to the song “Move Me”. This is strange in that the track
appears to be seamless when you don’t pay attention to the clock on
the CD player, and is a wonderful piece of music that dares to
suggest that King’s X is producing the best music of their
career.
The only finger-wagging I think I’d do at this point comes with
the “hidden track” – which is nothing more than a little sonic
feedback and another foreign-language bridge. My feelings on
burying bonus material more than 20 seconds past the listed end of
an album is well-known – but if you’re going to make me sit through
a few minutes of dead air, at least offer me something more to chew
on than
this.
Please Come Home… Mr. Bulbous is not the kind of disc
you’ll get on the first listen, even if you’ve followed King’s X
throughout their career. But if you’re willing to give it a
temporary home in your CD changer and you listen to it a few times,
its true beauty will come through. And while this disc is a very
good outing, it still suggests that the best may be yet to come
from King’s X.