King Krule: Man Alive! [MATADOR]

Why you'll love it

This edition comes in a gatefold jacket with a printed inner sleeve and an artwork insert. It reached No. 12 in the UK and No. 2 on the UK independent chart, and NME heard a more optimistic outlook than on The Ooz.

This edition

• Gatefold jacket
• Printed inner sleeve
• Artwork insert
• Lyrics included

About the album

Archy Marshall has gone by Zoo Kid and a handful of other names, but King Krule is the one that stuck. The South London singer, songwriter and producer, a Brit School art student turned cult hero, makes music that blends punk jazz with hip hop, darkwave, trip hop and post-punk, and Man Alive! is his third album under the King Krule name and fourth overall.

Marshall produced and mixed it with Dilip Harris, and it moves through 14 songs in under 42 minutes, from scuffed, shouting guitar to late-night murmur. "Cellular" drifts on a woozy, half-asleep groove, "Comet Face" builds around a sample of Otis Redding and Carla Thomas's Tramp, and "Alone, Omen 3" borrows from the Ohio Players' Never Had a Dream for one of his warmest songs. "Airport Antenatal Airplane" and "(Don't Let The Dragon) Draag On" both weave in elements of Nilüfer Yanya's Small Crimes, and Ignacio Salvadores' saxophone curls through several tracks. The three singles arrived across January and February 2020, with "Draag On" first out of the gate.

In North America it reached No. 6 on Billboard's Top Alternative Albums chart, and Pitchfork rated it 7.7. Salvadores is credited with backing vocals as well as sax, the sort of multitasking we keep suggesting at staff meetings.

Also at Kops: more King Krule on vinyl · browse Alternative

Tracklist

Listen

On True Panther Sounds / Matador (cat# TRUE133LP), the 2020 album.