Wild Beasts – Boy King
Released August 5th, 2016
Heavy-handed metaphors, check; cringe worthy choruses (and verses), check…The vocals and lyrics on this release reveal the boys of Wild Beasts taking on the tropes of masculinity with the subtlety of a sledgehammer and lyrics that are about as clever as a head-on collision. Boy King the fifth album is bit of a u-turn. The core elements are all still there. Vocalists Hayden Thorpe and Tom Fleming are as prominent as ever but they’re obnoxious, oppressive, and overbearing in their delivery. Much of the joy to be found in this record is in its production (Recorded by John Congleton in Dallas, Texas). As for the songs themselves, despite the cleaner, gleaming sound, to their detriment don’t yield much on repeated listens, and the song arrangements begin to feel antiseptic.
2.5 out of 5 stars
