Artist – Little King
Album: Amuse De Q
Record Label: Unsigned
Release Date: 3 September 2021
We interviewed Little King not that along ago which some readers may remember. They are a band from North America with a strong passion for rock. The group draws influence from all of the member’s varied and unique backgrounds, creating an amalgamation of grungy, Latin rock. Their most recent release came out an album titled ‘Amuse De Q’ and today we will be taking a dive into this new release. If you want to know more about Little King why not check out our interview with their bassist Manny Tejeda.
The album is based on all of the things the band have witnessed and been inspired by during the Quarantine, and all the questions they have. Lyrically discussing topics such as the isolation of the quarantine and the sadness and mood swings associated with it, sobriety, the BLM movement, domestic violence, physical and mental health and the fraying of relationships. Little King also take inspiration from the Muse Melpomene, who is the muse of tragedy and chorus. She makes a few appearances on this album both as a song title and as part of the album cover.
The first track “Bombs Away” discusses the isolation of lockdowns and social distancing, scare mongering news feeds, and losing touch with reality when isolated for such long periods of time. There is no slow start here as it bursts straight in with powerful distorted guitar and thrashing drums. Though it isn’t all lyrically doom and gloom when we get some waves of positive lead vocalist Ryan Rosoff singing of “Coming together” and “Things will get better”. We really get some fun guitar solo’s and fills something prevalent throughout much of the album.
“Keyboard soldier” is another song that instantly throws you in with the electric guitar and bass playing off one another and with kind of shouted whispers which is the best way I can think to describe the vocals. I honestly prefer when he goes into his more shouted grunge vocals but I see the idea of building intensity to explode into those vocals. Following on from this is “Set it Down” where the album takes a detour with more of a slow burner which creates the feeling of being marooned lost in a desert. This is perhaps to represent isolation we have all endured during COVID opening with drums reminiscent of a marching band and contrasts at the end with much more of a happy hopeful tone.
The track with the most clear reference to the previously mentioned Melpomene is, yes you guessed it “Melpomene” which given the fact she is supposed to represent chaos makes this particular song unusual. It is almost chaotic in it’s lack of chaos it’s not what you would expect, there are no vocals its purely instrumental. It gives you a sense of unease the orchestral elements contrasting with the somewhat arpeggiated guitar.
The title track comes next this one discusses mental health and searching for happiness and again reference to their muse. We are given a cool opening guitar lick and has a clear but slow build up giving us the satisfaction letting that build up erupt with probably one of my favourite choruses on the album with loud grunge induced guitar and punchy drums. Things then end where we began loud and fast with possibly the most intense track on the record “Omega Son” with shouted vocals almost approaching metal at times and a great way to finish.
There is clearly a great deal of emotion in this album and we can see the band have almost used it as their own therapy session to get the bad stuff off their backs. Overall this is mainly a fast and frenetic and enthralling album with a few quieter detours thrown in. I feel perhaps a couple of songs went on longer than they needed to and their are a few backing instrumentals I probably wouldn’t have chosen. Apart from that this was a fun listen and I think worthy of 4 stars, make sure to check it out on all streaming platforms now.
Track Listing:
Bombs Away
Keyboard Soldier
How Could You?
Set It Down
Melpomene
Amuse de Q
Omega Son
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