Written By Caden Williamson
The last time The Marcus King Band released an album was seven years ago with Carolina Confessions, which instantly became one of my favorite albums after discovering it a few years after its release. It was the band’s third project release since forming in 2013 and showcased not only a 22-year-old guitar virtuoso with a powerful and promising voice in Marcus King, but a lively and complete band with clear chemistry. Horns and screaming guitar solos were used generously and brought the band’s typical soulful sound to another level as it supported a much better-written set of songs. Carolina Confessions possessed a maturity that was hard to believe came from a group of guys my age, and which was no doubt strengthened by the wonderful production of Dave Cobb.
Unfortunately, the bands newest record, Darling Blue, doesn’t compare. What a bummer. I saw the band three times before this release and I should’ve heeded the warning signs a little more: Since Carolina Confessions, the band has changed membership in almost all positions for reasons I can only speculate on. Marcus King has also since released three solo projects, which all fell short of the band’s group work but thrusted him individually further into the mainstream. Although King and his band at one time carried a varied and instrumental-focused sound, with elements of soul, psych-rock, blues, gospel, rock and country all appearing on the same record, they seemed to have lost a vital piece of their chemistry throughout the years.
“On & On” is a strong start. It’s got plenty of space for the acoustic guitar to ring out, which feels sincere and is joined by fiddle and banjo. Hearing an electric guitar at all had me excited for the rest of the album, as the lack of gratuitous guitar soloing was one of my biggest complaints with King’s last solo record. This was a bit misleading.
The shuffle beat of “On & On” gets me staring out the car window like I hoped this whole album would, but that ponderous joy gets quickly shut down by “Here Today” with Jamey Johnson and Kaitlin Butts. I couldn’t listen to this song more than a couple times to be honest. I think Johnson and Butts both have great voices, but they just seem so bored through the whole song.
“Honkey Tonk Hell” and “Heartlands” are two of the singles that were released in the months before the album’s release, and they are two of my favorites from the album.
“Heartlands” is a love song that is poppier than pretty much all of the rest of Marcus King’s discography; I liked it in a Rascall Flatts kind of way. “Honkey Tonk Hell” had some of the only horns on the entire album, and they were only used very sparingly in the intro and outro. To me, the horns are crucial to the band’s sound, and the overall absence of them in this album was very disappointing.
“Somebody Else” features fellow Arkansan, Jesse Welles, who has been on a meteoric rise of his own this past year. Seeing him featured in the record was huge for me, but I hate to say I didn’t love the track. That being said, none of the songs with features really caught my attention besides “The Shadows,” which features Noah Cyrus, whose harmonies and solo verse fit so well into my pre-existing idea of what the album should sound like. I know I shouldn’t ask for the same album twice, but “The Shadows” was a satisfying return to the band’s previous sound.
King’s vocals on “Carolina Honey” are winded and pleading. The song crescendos with a chorus humming out the melody and makes way for the most incredible guitar solo that never comes. It was maybe the most frustrating omission of guitar on the whole album – really had me scratching my head. I still like the song alright, but it sounded a bit unfinished.
“Carry Me Home” features King on the piano and shares a heartbeat with “Delilah,” a hit single off his latest solo album, Mood Swings. As hard as it is to compare to his guitar ability, Marcus King is convincing behind the piano, which I think helps bring to focus his songwriting ability, and the tune brings the album pleasantly to a gentle close. As good as the song is though, I sit through it somewhat empty handed at the end of a disappointing follow-up to one of my favorite albums of all time. So much time has passed since Carolina Confessions, and I’m sad to say that I think the band’s sound has been lost in the membership changes and business decisions that have come with their lead’s success. The band still kills it live (particularly Jack Ryan on drums and Drew Smithers on slide guitar), and Marcus King has certainly not gotten any worse at guitar himself, but the change in their recorded sound leaves me troubled for their future.
Marcus King has always been able to write and sing country music, but with Darling Blue, it seems like the invisible hand of Nashville has thoughtlessly boiled and shaped his image down to solely that of a machine-born country artist. His greatest individual strength is his guitar playing ability, which has taken a backseat for the past three albums to make way for a more “tender” and “honest” sound, and the members that were so integral to the band’s previous sound have mostly disappeared. I don’t know why I wasn’t more alarmed by these changes before the album was released, but I’ll be going into the next one with a little lower
expectation. At the very least, I hope for one guitar solo of three minutes or longer and a bunch more brass.
Rating: 5/10