King Khan & The Shrines - The Supreme Genius Of

  by Andrew Carver

published: 27 / 9 / 2008

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Review

King Khan and the (sometimes Sensational) Shrines have been putting out greasy, punchy retro soul sing Khan split from Montreal garage punks the Spaceshits at the end of the 1990's for Berlin and connubial bliss. With a trio of albums, a split with the Dirtbombs and a smattering of seven and 10-inch records, it seems apt to deliver a compilation of their work to familiarize that part of the world not previously aware of his supreme genius. Besides being a dud-free introduction to Khan’s body of work, it also features a few hard-to-find treats, kicking off with ‘Torture’, lifted from a 2000 7-inch. For a man who split his country of birth in pursuit of love, the now-married father of two seems to enjoy poking loopy fun at women in general. ‘Took My Lady to Dinner’ (from the 200 10-inch ‘Spread Your Love Like ... Peanut Butter!’) is based on the notion that despite his girlfriend’s displeasing appearance - "She’s fat! She’s ugly! She’s fat and she’s ugly!" – and, according to the lyrics, often makes him break down in tears at the thought of the cost of feeding her, he loves here anyway. On ‘I Wanna Be A Girl’ (from last year’s ‘What Is?!’, like several other cuts) because of "The way that the bitch, and the way that they curse, and the things in their purse." But then, part of Khan and Co’s genius King Khan is taking the lovelorn song-smithing of 1960's and 70's soul and exaggerating it to bizarre dimensions while keeping a grip on its basic sincerity. The Shrines include an organ player, drummer, bassist, guitarist, percussionist, a three-man horn section and a dancer (whose contribution doesn’t really come across on CD) in addition to Khan, a man whose willingness to riff on the genius of (early) James Brown knows no bounds. Thus equipped, they are more than capable of blasting out a bevy of energetic tunes capable of producing sweat where before there was none. The horns are at their punchiest on ‘Sweet Tooth’, rescued from the split with the Dirtbombs called ‘Billiards at Nine Thirty’. The band can also slow it down, as on the melodramatic throb of ‘Shivers Down My Spine’ and ‘(Keep You) Outta Harm’s Way’, or bounce through jauntier numbers like the tremelo-laden ‘Crackin’ Up’. There’s very little dross in King Khan’s albums, and any one makes for a good introduction, but for a one-stop-shopper ‘The Supreme Genius’ is as good as you’ll get – at least until the band puts out a live DVD.

Track Listing:-

1 Torture
2 Took My Lady To Dinner
3 Outta Harm's Way
4 Land Of The Freak
5 Fool Like Me
6 I Wanna Be A Girl
7 Welfare Bread
8 Sweet Tooth
9 Shivers Down My Spine
10 Burnin' Inside
11 Destroyer
12 Live Fast Die Strong
13 Crackin' Up
14 Tell Me
15 Que Lindo Sueño
16 No Regrets

Label Links:-

http://www.vicerecords.com/
https://www.facebook.com/VICE/
https://twitter.com/VICE
http://vicemag.tumblr.com/