Apparently a gunslinger in his self-named band – I’ll have to check this out – the soul and occasional folk-esque slant of this album would seem to show King on a different/personal musical trajectory. Indeed, opener Young Man’s Dream is very much in the Neil Young folk vein [assuming there is no pun intended in title] with King singing in a near falsetto, and is a pretty start. Second The Well is literally a stomper and one of the relatively heavier numbers on the album, King in grittier voice, guitar here and throughout evident as solo playing but target-practice rather than slung.
Wildflowers & Wine
is the first of a night-time caress of blue-eyed soul numbers, with follower One Day She’s Here a 70s pop-soul ballad
with plucked and other light orchestral strings – retro-wonderful. Beautiful Stranger continues on the sweet
soulful pathway, here some country pedal steel smoothing it out further; Break invokes 80s soul harmonies and
more pronounced orchestrations [this really is pretty music], and Say You Will funks things up for the
other era it draws from.
It’s all more than damn good. The final two numbers hammer
this home – penultimate Love Song rouses with a sweet soul chorus, and closer No Pain returns again to Neil Young, there
in the pulsed rhythm, the little guitar breaks, and a hint of cinnamon in the
soul’s roll.
This is going to be one of the best of 2020.
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