A rich and rewarding exercise in traditional blues, Young Blood’s (American / Republic / Snakefarm) vital ingredients also include southern rock, soul and even country. As produced by Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys, this is one to wallow and luxuriate in – but don’t get too comfortable as angst and agony are never far away in the songs of a relative kid who seems to have lived something of a life already.
Marcus King boasts a soulful voice and his rapid-fire guitar attacks are potent and precise – succinct and subtle when necessary, rarely over-played or over-done.
Opener ‘It’s Too Late’ has that familiar pounding, fuzzy Black Keys groove. ‘Lie Lie Lie’ showcases King’s vocals at their most unfettered with a Led Zep riff that ups the rock ante, while ‘Rescue Me’ is a writhing, snaking, yearning cry for release and redemption that recalls the moody epics of Kings Of Leon.
Auerbach knows where blues, country and rock ’n’ roll intertwine having produced the likes of Dr John, Ray LaMontagne and Hank Williams Jr, and Young Blood still surprises. ‘Good And Gone’ emphasises the classic power-trio sound while ‘Blood On The Tracks’ (a familiar title, indeed) kicks off funky like Steely Dan. Stomping single ‘Hard Working Man’ is a Blue-Collar anthem, a statement of intent with a Creedence vibe. ‘Dark Cloud’ is Free and relatively easy but with an unexpectedly dreamy, wispy Fleetwood Mac chorus.
Closing track ‘Blues Worse Than I Ever Had’ could be on a record by modern country icon Chris Stapleton, cooing but never cloying, sweet but never too far from that true grit and real-life anguish.
A seasoned, fourth-generation music professional still in his mid-twenties, the boy’s first solo album, also with Auerbach, was Grammy nominated. Young Blood turns it all up a notch with co-songwriters including Desmond Child and Angelo Petraglia. But will it have crossover appeal beyond King’s already hard-earned dominion, a realm peopled by those who love to mull over the roots of this magic we all know and love, this “blues” and, by association, this “rock ’n’ roll”?
The late, great Nick Tosches perhaps said it best in Where Dead Voices Gather, his book about “trick-voice”, blackface performer Emmett Miller. Tosches talks of Homer, Virgil and Dante, quotes John, 1:1: “In the beginning was the Word,” and Dee Dee Sharp: “Mashed potatoes started a long time ago.”
From the Rosetta Stone to The Rolling Stones, from virtue to vice, and vice versa, he surveys an otherworldly, primordial swamp of influences, iterations and interpretations in search of the pre-recorded raw essence of that “deep magic and slow, hard, grave-digging rhythm”. Ultimately, he declares the roots are still something of a mystery, despite what academics and “off-the-rack intellectuals” might try to tell you.
Marcus could probably write a book about it himself, having learned from his father, grandfather and uncles back in Greenville, South Carolina. The new King has surely been baptised in that primordial swamp, ducked under in the traditional manner, and has come up smelling of muck and Four Roses, with few poses or pretensions.
Buy the album here: https://amzn.to/3CoCp5Y
9 / 10
CALLUM REID
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