Suffocated In Concrete

King Krule “The Noose of Jah City”

It can be so difficult to reconcile the sophistication and sexiness of this music with the fact that it was written and performed by a gawky teenage boy. Archy Marshall’s voice is immediately fascinating – it has the poetic English grit of a Joe Strummer or latter-day Elvis Costello, but a more elastic phrasing than either. “The Noose of Jah City” frames his voice with echoing guitar, shimmering keyboards and a dubby bass line; it sounds like the middle of night. The lyrics get rather morbid, but the sound and feeling is pure romance. And you know, even if the words aren’t about sex and love, there is a romanticism in imagining the end of your life, right?

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