Review: Marcus King 'Mood Swings'

Review: Marcus King ‘Mood Swings’

By Hal Horowitz

Push play on Marcus King’s fifth release Mood Swings and you’ll hear a disembodied voice sounding like it’s beamed in from an old radio show mutter “And I think that is the part of Hell that a person in depression really tastes…The Hopelessness.” The latter two words are repeated six times to hammer in the effect.

Clearly we are entering unique, intense territory for the young guitar-slinging singer/songwriter.

As its title implies, Mood Swings addresses King’s fragile cerebral state. Initially leading the Marcus King Band, he now records under his own name. But for every review of other artist’s albums described as the act’s “most personal work yet,” this accurately lives up to that critical cliché.

Song titles indicate the subjects King deals with, such as “Save Me,” “Bipolar Love,” “Soul It Screams,” and most directly “F*ck Up My Life Again,” the latter improbably the set’s first single. Along with this conceptual change—influenced by King’s psychological situation which led to suicidal feelings combined with a problematic use of booze and drugs—comes a radical musical one.

Gone is last album’s classic rocking, 70s guitar-heavy vibe. It’s replaced with emotionally laced, tough singing and a deeply soulful, sleeker instrumental approach over which the introspection of King’s lyrics is laid. Add themes of confronting his conflicted thoughts and psychological demons to the already provocative mix about grasping onto a fragile mental state, for pop music that’s moving and affecting.

King credits famed producer Rick Rubin for providing this sonic palette, allowing these often gripping lyrics to prosper inside easy-flowing melodies that downplay, but don’t eliminate, the musician’s sublime guitar fills.

From the widescreen, Marvin Gaye influenced bubbling R&B of “F*uck My Life Up Again,” with its swirling strings, revolving, ghostly backing vocals and backwards guitar, to the acoustic tinged soul/folk of “This Far Gone” (“Guess I have a heart worth breaking” he sings in a Prince-like falsetto) and the piano dominated McCartney-styled “Delilah” featuring its perfectly placed distorted guitar solo, each track is immaculately crafted. Most, such as the synth-infused “Inglewood Motel (Halestorm)” introducing muted horns and a Steely Dan-influenced jazz underpinning, push into fresh territory compared to King’s previous work.

King’s vocals are the most expressive of his career, molding aspects of Josh Teskey’s gritty swoon, Paul Janeway’s (St. Paul & the Broken Bones) upper register falsetto and even some of Van Morrison’s Celtic soul into these suavely grooving songs. You’ll never find the words “love is bipolar” used in a more romantic sense than when King croons them from underneath what seems to be satin sheets.

The intricate guitar picking on “Save Me” (with the riveting lyrics “I had no more plans for living/You were the reason why” and “I feel like I’m trapped in my mind”) is a subtle indication that his six-string talents remain although they are often restrained in the mix.

The melancholy, never mushy, Mood Swings is clearly a major, perhaps unexpected expansion of Marcus King’s creative progression.

It’s a landmark entry in Marcus King’s impressive catalog, opening up edgy new vistas for future audio explorations.

“Mood Swings”