Boy King

Description

Where 2014s Present Tense album found Wild Beasts in reflective mood, absorbing a fascination with online culture and electronic music, Boy King has them, as Tom Fleming puts it, back to being pissed off.

The quartets ever-present knack for sensual melody via Hayden Thorpe and Flemings dueting vocals, Ben Littles sinuous guitar groove and Chris Talbots potent rhythm section carries in Boy King, an aggressive, snarling and priapic beast that delves into the darker side of masculinity and Thorpes own psyche.

A newfound creative friction between Thorpe and Fleming proved key to unleashing the unique pop sensibility of Boy King, with Flemings more visceral experimentation unlocking new dimensions in Thorpes own writing. After spending a whole year finessing this new found impetus in East London, the band emerged with a collection of songs ready to take to Dallas and producer John Congleton (St. Vincent, Swans, The War On Drugs). Both Thorpe and Fleming credit that trip to Dallas with teasing out the raw power of Boy King. In the studio, the band kept up the intensity of the office hour routine theyd employed during writing sessions and, they say, responded well to Congletons sober discipline. He made us get in there, get on and do it, Fleming says. English politeness never featured.

The raw pop of Boy Kings songs are the perfect foil to Thorpes libidinous lyricism: it became apparent that that guitar almost became the character within the songs, that phallic character, the all-conquering male, he says. Im letting my inner Byron fully out, I thought Id tucked him away, but he came screaming back like The Incredible Hulk. Here lies Boy Kings greatest success between the slide of prowling aggression and interior darkness, there are glorious, gorgeous moments. Its yet another incomparable Wild Beasts record; a visceral, sensual and jolting body of work that acts as a remarkable soundtrack to the early 21st Century male malaise.

LP pressed on heavyweight vinyl with digital download code.