CD Review: King’s Bullet EP – King’s Bullet

11 years ago Liv Carter Comments Off on CD Review: King’s Bullet EP – King’s Bullet
Digital Sound Records/Ingrooves Fontana

 

Individually, Trey Bruce and Loni  Rose, the duo known as King’s Bullet, have an impressive list of credits to their names including production, writing, and performing with artists such as Chris Ledoux, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Nelly Furtado, and Chris Isaak. So you know from the get-go that this is seasoned talent. After penning several songs together and deciding that they’d be hard pressed to find anyone to sing them with the same conviction, Bruce and Rose decided to release them under the name King’s Bullet and perform them themselves.

As you’d expect from a duo with the credentials Bruce and Rose have, the songwriting is excellent. The album’s title track muses on what the singer would have done and how differently the world would have turned out had she been the Cadillac Hank Williams was riding in the night he died, and the bullet that cut down Martin Luther King Jr. ‘Watermelon Sun,’ the EP’s moody opening track, is an ode to moving past a tragic event, be it a relationship or anything else. They don’t explicitly say WHAT it is they’re moving past, but it invites the listener to make their own mind. On ‘What Were You Thinking,’ Rose is working past a cheating lover’s misdeeds, but still haunted by thoughts of him with the other woman and wondering how or why he could do what he did. It’s a shopworn topic, but they write it with a fresh perspective. Their melodic sense is well developed and they rarely, if ever, choose melodies that seem obvious. With that said, everything is well written despite it being not your standard fare.

If the album has a standout track, it’s ‘I Won’t Be Your Second Choice.’ Sung with a candor that’s almost unsettling, Rose tells her lover that she’ll do anything for him, be it lying to police, helping him quit drinking, even being a cheerleader for him when no one else will, but she won’t be second to anyone else. The song’s sparse arrangement breathes well and allows the vocals to sink in, unmarred by needless production.

The production in general is excellent, with arrangements understated where they need to be and more packed when it’s appropriate, but it’s never too much.

Bruce and Rose’s voices blend together well, partially due to the fact that Loni has a very unique voice, lying somewhere between Shawn Colvin and Deana Carter. She’s not always right on the money in terms of notes, but her performances are emotive and really bring character to the songs. Bruce, whose voice sounds just a touch like Jack Ingram, is a perfect foil for the airiness that Rose brings to the table. While he doesn’t sing as much as I’d have liked on the record, when he does chime in, it makes the phrases pop a bit more. That blend of vocal timbres was something I had hoped to hear more of. Rose is definitely “the singer” here, but I had hoped they’d make a little more of the unique sound they have when singing together.

I wish that they had tightened up their vocal arrangements to take advantage of their blend. On some tracks, one is just a touch ahead of the other, or they aren’t singing the same inflections, which makes them sound like two separate singers rather than two singers coming together to create a unique timbre. Other times it’s more a matter of parts themselves that just could have better arranged to utilize both voices. There are glimpses of them singing together perfectly on parts of several of the tracks here like ‘The Bones Of Tequila Roses,’ and the excellent closer ‘Been There,’ which makes it more disappointing that they didn’t take the time to work these issues out.

There are also too many slow tunes. Of the 8 tracks, 6 of them are slow, ‘Blood On The Floor’ and ‘Watermelon Sun’ being the only two that are mid-to-up tempo. I’m sure they weren’t thinking in terms of a record when they were writing the songs, but I’d have liked a little more variety. The songs tended to blend together a bit due to being so similar in tempo, although at the same time, this could be a good mood music album if you want to look at it that way.

In all, the King’s Bullet EP is a solid record, especially in the writing department. There are a couple songs here that, if they don’t end up making King’s Bullet a household name, could definitely be excellent cuts for established artists looking for something a little outside the box. But either way, the listener wins.

 

To find out more, please visit http://www.kingsbullet.com/, and receive updates via their facebook page.

 

Liv Carter

Liv Carter

Liv is a career coach for creatives, and the people who work with them.
She holds several certificates from Berklee College of Music, and a certificate in Positive Psychology from UC Berkeley.
Her main influences are coffee, cats, and Alexander Hamilton.
Liv Carter

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