Review: Sarah King ‘When It All Goes Down’
By Hal Horowitz
“Good things come to those who wait” goes the cliché, which surely applies to singer/songwriter Sarah King.
The world got a taste of her talents three years ago with the release of her impressive, but short, five song EP. Even at just 15 minutes and four originals, it was clear King had ample ability, vocally and as a powerful songsmith. Those who heard her slow, stomping “Not Worth the Whisky” blues (with whistling!), let alone a dark, bleak, hushed yet potent solo acoustic take on Black Sabbath’s “War Pigs,” were likely enthusiastic about the potential for more.
That time has now come.
When It All Goes Down’s dozen riveting, sometimes intense, always affecting songs prove the EP’s indications of King’s gifts were no fluke. It may have taken longer than we, and likely she, likes but these tracks reflect a dynamic skill to mesh blues with rock, dark folk and gospel influences for a portrait of an artist that even on this, her debut full-length, feels like the work of an established pro.
Things explode with a roaring start. King’s opening near a cappella vocals of “Lord Take My Soul” lead into a full-blown Zeppelin-infused, pounding treatise as she wails “I’m bound to suffer for my sins” continuing with “Lord take my soul/But the struggle remains/I’d like to rest my bones/But I cannot change my ways” with all the pulsating power and emotional turmoil those words imply. It’s an authoritative opening and even if little else conveys that level of gripping strength, the remaining eleven offerings confirm King’s tough intensity.
She does more in the brief 2:23 of “You Were Wrong About Me”–dismissing an ex-lover with the titular words as the band punches out commanding chords before a wordless bridge– than other artists do in twice that time. A battle with booze is reflected in the stark piano ballad “Whiskey Thinking” which conflates conflicted ideas about love with those of alcohol in “I know I said I should quit drinkin’/Can’t close my tab cuz I’m still wondering what we have.” On “Blame It on the Booze,” another authoritative piano-dominated treatise, the singer reaches out to a friend experiencing spousal abuse with the aggressor’s behavior telescoped by its title and the words “Next time he drinks too much we’ll help him join his shadow.”
Relationships receive the same zealous treatment. King wails on the slow blues “The Longest Night” about not allowing an old flame back into her life as organ and piano join for rugged and relentless churchy soul.
The promotional notes describe King’s music as “Gothic Americana,” which does an admirable, if not entirely definitive, job of classifying her diverse approach. It describes the creeping noir rock of “Pretty Things,” at just under five minutes the disc’s longest and most oblique selection, as she moans “I’d break anything for you including my own neck.” Whoah.
King dusts off a Zeppelin rarity with “Hey Hey What Can I Do” (originally the B-side of 1970s “Immigrant Song”) which she digs into with sly poignancy and a Beth Hart-styled attack. The closing “Devil’s Try” takes us down to the Mississippi, tethering a lap steel slide with stark handclaps for another example of how King combines rock and blues with equal authenticity.
After experiencing the set’s nearly 40 minutes you’ll forget how long it took to appear and celebrate in hearing a fresh, creative, genre pushing artist whose time has absolutely arrived.
Sarah King website
“When It All Goes Down”
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