The last time the world heard from Archy Marshall, he was recording under the moniker Zoo Kid, under which he recorded the brilliant Out Getting Ribs. Now, at just 17, Marshall has released his debut eponymous EP as King Krule.
Despite his age, the five songs on the EP are all quite dark, filled with tension and anxiety. Take, for example, “Lead Existence” which, at just over a minute, is the EP’s shortest song – it builds quickly before unexpectedly ending on the line “I lost the soul to my blues, a long time ago.”
If one were to look at Marshall before listening to his music, one would certainly not expect the voice he produces. Looking like an androgynous mix between La Roux and Rick Astley, Marshall is slight, well-dressed, pale, and boasts shockingly red hair. Yet when he opens his mouth, what emerges is not quite a radio-ready voice like that of La Roux or even Astley, but one with shades of Leonard Cohen, Billy Bragg and even Tom Waits. Marshall’s voice, unlike perhaps Coen’s, is much more expressive and changes appropriately given the different songs’ lyrics and music. Over 808 drums and a heavy bass on “Bleak Bake,” Marshall is laid-back and calm, making the violent imagery in lines like “Now I’m covered in blood on the bed/And it’s a familiar scene” even more haunting.
“Portrait In Black and Blue,” the EP’s centerpiece, is easily its catchiest. Featuring guitar riffs not unlike those perfected by Johnny Marr and bands like The Libertines, “Portrait” is the EP’s most accessible, as well as danceable, track. Marshall shows off his (albeit limited) range as he goes from his by-now trademark mumble in the song’s beginning to his own version of crooning by its end.
Wisely, Marshall saves the EP’s best song, “The Noose of Jah City,” for last. Undoubtedly, it is the most focused and well-rounded song of the five. A meditation on the stress and anxiety that comes from living in a massive city (London, in Marshall’s case), “Noose” is centered on an echoing guitar line and keyboards, over which Marshall’s reverb-heavy vocals emerge. Again, even at such a young age, Marshall sounds mature and poised when predicting his own death – “My body found, but my soul was left to drown/Suffocated in concrete.”
