Squeezing in just at the bottom, but definitely worth a nod pending further listening, is this nice little platter than I picked up only a week or two ago. Until recently, I’d largely ignored the doings of US/Canadian garage-rock mainstay King Khan, just because, well… I dunno really. The costumes, the goofy album covers, the general ‘shtick’ of the whole business… these things have a tendency to put me off. Maybe I read an interview with him once where he said some stuff I thought was stupid. I don’t know. I don’t even remember.

Anyway, long story short: apparently this was my own damn loss, because my girlfriend persuaded me to go see what is known as The King Khan & BBQ Show in London earlier this year, and verily, they kicked ass. Great rock n’ roll music (and I say that in hushed tones, etc). This here Shrines ensemble is a somewhat different kettle of fish, however. Far smoother and more well-mannered, it sees our main man backed by slick production, tasteful horns, Philly soul strings and the like, but it’s still very enjoyable, by and large, with some great guitar licks, a solid retro-soul type groove and moderate-to-good original song-writing. There’s a definite flavour of major label ‘60s psych hanging in the air that occasionally puts me in mind of The Animals, Chocolate Watch Band and perhaps one of those post-Forever Changes Love albums where Arthur Lee went off in a more straight-up rock band direction. Meanwhile, some of the mellower numbers in the middle of the record – ‘Darkness’, ‘Pray For Lil’ – are about the lushest re-enactments of ‘60s Southern soul you could hope to hear in these dark days. Highlights for sure.

So: not life-changing or anything, and it does sometimes veer a bit too far toward the kinda shallow ‘60s pop parody direction currently prevalent amongst other popular garage groups that I’ll refrain from naming, but mostly: THUMBS UP. There are some really fine bits of psyche-blues-rock and soul to enjoy here, with some genuine songwriterly feeling behind ‘em too, and listening to it makes me feel good. Definitely the best album you’ll hear in 2013 made by a man who insists on appearing in public in latex underwear and an Egyptian headdress, anyhow.

Stream & buy from Merge.

Labels: best of 2013, King Khan & The Shrines