KINGDOM COME

When I had spun the record for the first time I couldn't believe what I just had been put through. Totally off the wall, disjointed, insane and frankly quite impossible to penetrate. I was gobsmacked, confused and not impressed at all. Lycky, then, that I persevered and tried really hard finding the meaning behind all this ranting and raving.The point is that the album has alot to offer, if you are willing and able to dig through the rumble and chaos. At the end you will see or hear, as Howard Carter put it, wonderful things.

I came to understand the album through the track "Whirlpool", by way of Brown's strange sailor anthemish bit, or how to explain it. I listened to the beginning of the song several times, when I'd given up hope, and it stuck by me. After that the whole track and eventually the whole album unravelled it's secrets and the treasure was found.

When you've cracked the code the album it is strangely accessible, though fully impenetrable at first. The music is severely demented, yet so amazingly conceived it's blinding me. The british antics and references are definately to my taste and the ideas seemed to come flying by at crazy speed and in ever crazier numbers. There are a lot of sounds, bits and utter pieces joining in, making me wonder how on Earth you are able to concoct anything like this. The only real putdown, for me, is when Brown discusses his bowl movements accompanied by the band making silly, colonic noises. It is ridicilous and out of place, in fact it is below Brown I think. That put aside, the album is endearingly british, quirky, insane, utterly progressive and entertaining in every sense of the word.

As a result, I find "Kingdom come" being a true delight. While not worthy of five stars it is certainly an album of four, bright shining stars. From my first feelings of bewilderment and disgust, I am now amazed and in love with this album. There are tales of everything, to the sounds of folk, medieval, hard rock, amazing organ playing an progressive music of the highest caliber. Top notch! Sort of.