Search - King's X :: Please Come Home Mr Bulbous

Pointed a finger straight into the sun.

Steven Duggar | Missouri | 10/13/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"There are many reasons for a quick dislike of this album. Ty's magic guitar tone is gone. The production is not as tasty. It's introduced by dissonant stacatto guitar over a beating drum--very un-KingsX-like. The cover itself looks cheap & photoshopped. The lyrics inside seem nonsensical and uncharacteristic.

Time brings it all together, though, and some of KX's finest melodies are here. They may be at their most beatles-esque, and this is their magical mystery tour or their seargeant peppers. It's like KX decided to be a different band for an album, but its just their doppelganger in an alternate universe. The lyrics are dream-like and full of images, wordplay, fairy-tale nonsense but emotionally focused nonsense. Mr. Wilson even shows up from the Faith Hope Love album--a nod to their most psychedelic record before Bulbous.

It's alternatingly very pretty and very heavy with more dissonance than guitar solos. (There is one awesome one on "When You're Scared"). There is passion here. It just works differently. Its kinda proggy but poppy...until they riff like its 1994. Not sweet like Ear Candy, not power pop like Tapehead or the later Ogre Tones. The parts are kinda pasted together sometimes--surely a product of the collaborative on-the-spot writing they started with Tapehead--but they work here (though it does sound like the songs Ty sings are by his own pen). They're having fun. Gets better after the first song, though that's a good song, too; the drummer does a beat poetry parody and I think its safe to assume it's not meant to be too serious. This ultra-goofiness is uncharacteristic of the album, though. The show-stopping "Charlie Sheen" is all jabberwocky but must be the most majestic song they've ever done. It soars just on pure feeling.

And it's not all meaningless. Some great lyrical moments: "All of your ornaments fall to the ground when you're scared." "If she gave me a sword in a lake would I mistake it?" And there seems to be more thought behind even the weirder verses than is apparent at first glance. And check the simply beautiful "Bittersweet" about a breakup. This is a serious album. If there's not an obvious concept, there is a feeling of wholeness to it. Doug almost interrupts "Marsh Mellow Field" to yell "Oh won't you take me out of my mind?!" Being a "Fish Bowl Man" means not seeing the big picture and going around and around in your little world wondering about something beyond the mundane--God? Fantasy? Getting high? What do you do after you lose an ideal? This cynicism is the dark undertone of the entire album. It's the shadowy opposite of FHL's heartful theological optimism (with sharper songwriting but not superior musicality) and it updates and answers the themes of the pre-Dogman era records more than its predecessors. There's a desire to escape into dreamland, or knowlege of the beyond--the feeling of *searching* for the Mystery is there even in the cut-up "Charlie Sheen"--yet it keeps "coming home" ("When You're Scared," "She's Gone Away") to the things that make them want to escape in the first place. And finally does in the last song "Move Me" that is one of the most sincere and moving things the band has ever done. It's a prayer born of disillusion. "Once I was told there's a race to be won, pointed the finger straight into the sun to be blinded. And I minded."

I hated this album when I first bought it, but now I love it. It's dark, but never depressing; the beauty of the music keeps a hopeful light on things. Give it a try.

"

By far the beginning of a slump

Daniel Hayes | 05/03/2009

(1 out of 5 stars)

"I will say that it's with this album I stopped listening to King's X. I cemented it even further when I read the review of "Manic Moonlight", and it mentions that Doug Pinnick and bandmates no longer follow Christ. I haven't been following Him too much lately either, and I do miss listening to King's X. I feel that this was a weak album still. I miss the heavy funk sound that was on "Tape Head". This was a weak pop album at best, and I was lost the minute I heard "Fish Bowl Man" I feel the best was saved for last with the 2 part "Move Me". The rest was pathetic. I may give this album another chance, but not now. As for them not following Christ I'm sure they have thier reasons, and it's not for me to judge them. I was disappointed, but I have to get over it. I heard samples of "Ogre Tones", and it sounded rather good, so I will give King's X a second chance, as for me following Christ I will come back to Him someday."