by Ben Hogwood

What’s the story?

This is King Creosote’s first album release on the Domino label for seven years. He has certainly not been idle in the meantime, however, continuing the prodigious level of work he has always invested into his Fence label in Fife, Scotland. There he is free to make instinctive albums at unusual speed, works shot through with his trademark lyrical imagination and instrumental colour.

Since Astronaut Meets Appleman was released in 2016 on Domino, the King – real name Kenny Anderson – has been exploring a more electronic approach to his music, bringing keyboard player Des Lawson into the spotlight. While they were musing over a title for the album, they saw how a play on words could bring I Des (of March) into being.

What’s the music like?

Everything good about King Creosote is here, with I DES taking an emotive look at the songwriter’s life as he approaches his 50^th birthday. Not all is rosy, that’s for sure – and themes of life and death, not to mention other preoccupations, furrow his brow as he sings. Music, however, is his strength and consolation.

This is his most adventurous ‘mainstream’ release to date, ending with two tracks that between them last 50 minutes. Before we get to that, though, there is music that is uplifting in language if not always chipper in its lyrics. The instrumentation has a silvery edge, rather like the hair of its creator (and also, increasingly, what remains of this reviewer!)

“The drugs only made me cry, when I was having such a good time!” Anderson notes on the opener, It’s Sin That’s Got It’s Hold Upon Us, but by Blue Marbled Elm Trees there is a serenity in the face of anxiety, and Burial Bleak reaches full strength. “I’m thinking that maybe dying’s just not for me”, he sings, backed by Hannah Fisher and a resolute cello. “You’ll see how hard I can cling to my life!”

In the middle of the album the music loses the plot entirely. Susie Mullen is a riot, the kitchen sink thrown at the production in what turns out to be a right old Fife knees-up with no musical rules adhered to. It is hugely enjoyable, and complemented by the haunting Love Is A Curse and beautiful, introverted thoughts of the piano-led song Ides.

The epic closer, Please Come Back I Will Listen, I Will Behave, I Will Toe The Line is also unlike anything Anderson has done before, moving from minor key darkness to major key light, finding grace and power as it does so. The stature at the end suggests a kind of accordion-powered equivalent to M83. This is realised even more fully in the substantial ‘bonus’ track, Drone in B#. This is a meditation of over 36 minutes, developing slowly as the fuzz of the accordion makes itself known as the pedal note. The approach works very well, Anderson taking his time to gather musical power, and delivering a musical statement that seems initially disposable but becomes a lasting tale.

Does it all work?

It does – provided the listener gives I DES several hearings. Then the treasures are fully unfurled.

Is it recommended?

Enthusiastically. King Creosote prefers to shun the limelight, but releases like this show why it is essential for him to keep making music. I DES provides many moments of joy, consolation and genuine uplift.

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Published post no.2,019 – Friday 24 November 2023