How i see "Junior"

I hated it at first, i could not believe it was KAKI KING, my mind was not used to the idea of listening that genre while knowing it was her.
I know artists and their style evolve but still i didn't quite like it.

But then as i was listening to it while driving (as i hear most of the music i'm interested at the moment) what i think was kaki's intention with the CD it struck me: it is in fact a movie less soundtrack to a Bourne-esque type of movie, i could feel the characters in "The Betrayer" being chased around a dark city and the situations that led them to be discovered by the enemy.
I Know this is based on a book, which is itself based on a real story.
So i think we're just missing the movie here.

Whilst Junior is my least favorite album so far, i think it serves it purpose: to make my mind wonder and fall into the same ideas and thoughts the artist, in this case Kaki wanted to transmit.
What i'm trying to say is that i liked it, but not as much as past albums.
And in the end there's one thing i don't get, which is the title and Ericka won't tell me.

Hi!

At first I was also a bit taken aback, that it was so different from Kaki's previous albums. And it was so... like, rock, you know?

But then I gave myself a mental slap and thought: If Kaki can reinvent herself like that and try something new, why should we - her fans - be any different? Why should we cling to the past and familiar (as often seen by fans that don't want anything to change)?

Now I absolutely love "Junior" and I'm happy that my "rock needs" can be filled by such an amazing artist as well ;-) And just the other day I discovered that another singer/songwriter I used to listen to a couple of years back had released a new album. And it sounded... just like the other ones. So boring artistic evolution at all. Which made me grateful that there are artists out there who dare think outside the box and get out of their comfort zone.

(besides, I've been to two Kaki concerts a couple of weeks apart and may I say: she totally rocks on stage. Haha, I sound like a crazy fan. But I'm not. Really)

Don't know anything about the title, though.

After too many cups of coffee, I wrote this as part of a post in my blog
about recent/upcoming musical releases the other night/morning.

Two things.
1. The following is my personal opinion,
nothing more,
&
2. I realise I am taking quite the liberty with my
interpretations of an artist's personal motivations, but (see preface 1)
..I call 'em like I see 'em.

Comparing new to old Kaki doesn't
really make sense to me. Critically speaking, I mean. Me, I enjoy every
one of her albums, they're all great! But simply, ...Until we
felt
red, Dreaming of Revenge & Junior are better IMO.
While

the styles & sounds are more varied & the tracks are no less
intricate/ audibly pleasing; Everybody Loves you is like, a
collection of songs (read the liner notes: some old, some from the time)
that reflected where Kaki was at that point. Legs to make us
longer
was a step towards a fully formed album, but it still had touches of
the style she was using at the time, with clear sign of branching out to
more progressive, alt rock song structure (plus, using vocals).

Just

that, if there’s one thing that pisses me off about music fans, it’s
when they can’t let go of shit. They are so into a particular sound or
album, that they write off anything that doesn’t appeal to them straight
off the bat. (Not unlike making personal demands on the artist’s
personal life “ugh, I wish they’d start doing heroin/being
suicidal/screwing up their relationships, so their music would improve”
this is a level of obnoxiousness that borders on sociopathic)

So,
tl;dr. I love Junior because
1. It feels like
the natural direction/progression of Kaki, as far as sound development
goes &
2. I just ... fucking love shoegaze.

i think junior's a fun album, and i understand that kk likes to experiment w/ different sounds...but i just couldn't get that into this album...

I understand how everyone feels with this album.
At first, I was taken aback at the style of Junior, but as I REALLY listened to it, it's still Kaki at heart.
You can hear it in her picking, and even her playing just chords, although it has evolved a lot more.
I love this album, simply because Kaki broke out of her shell and really started singing.
A lot of people may disagree, but she has an amazing voice, and her lyrics are compelling. I'm so glad that she made this album like it is.
Of course, her previous albums are still AWESOME, I believe Junior steps right into the category of Kaki King.

And who can't love her more after Sunnyside?

every time i listen to it lately i think about "Chuck" i recently got addicted to that show

superdoughboy4 wrote:
A lot of people may disagree, but she has an amazing voice, and her lyrics are compelling. I'm so glad that she made this album like it is.

This.
I think her voice is lovely, it suits her music style very well (& I would definitely rank her at, if not above other shoegaze vocalists like MBV's Bilinda Butcher, Miki Berenyi of Lush & Slowdive's Rachel Goswell)

I thought I was the only one who felt that movie vibe!

I'm more open to change and and an artist's ability to evolve, so I guess for me it wasn't that hard to get into. Or maybe because I listened to Dreaming of Revenge first, I don't know. But I did some comparing to the old stuff myself, and I found songs that reminded me of her earlier albums, such as My Nerves That Committed Suicide (the beginning of it reminds me of Yellowcake) Everything Has An End, Even Sadness and Sloan Shore. Usually my favorite on an album isn't a single, but Falling Day has to be my favorite (so far--it depends on my mood) followed by The Betrayer, which has, as mentioned by the original poster, a movie-like feel. I also really like My Communist Friends, Spit It Back In My Mouth (which could have easily been on Dreaming of Revenge) and The Hoopers of Hudspeth.

I personally think this is a really solid album. She just gets better and better!

I confess that when I listened to "Junior" for the first time, I thought it was nothing special. I mean, some of the songs sounded too standard, boring.. while I was listening to the album I didn't feel so excited as I was for the previous ones.
However, this was just the first impression. I used to like single songs instead of whole albums, but with Junior I changed my approach.. I like it, because I believe that experimentations and changements are the most important things, expecially in music. After 4 albums based just on her guitar, Kaki was brave to try with different genres, and I don't think I could blame her..

I wasn't really taken aback so much at the style of Junior, because I'd bought Mexican Teenagers in 2009 which is sort of the same style, or at least leaning into what Junior is like. I was taken aback when I heard Mexican Teenagers though.

I'm surprised people were so shocked by Junior. this. Kaki has been steadily progressing towards this style for a long time now.

Mind you I'm not complaining, It took me seeing her play junior live to really get into it and allot of the songs still aren't my favorite, but Dreaming was like that too for me and now it's probably one of my favorites.

When you look at how her stuff has changed from red onward it's slowly been moving this way, just look at the amount of vocal tracks on each album, red is about a third, dreaming about half and junior about 2/3. The styles of instrumentals has changed too, they have become more organized and (to me) all about building on themes, very post rocky (makes sense considering John McEntire produced Red.) Then when revenge came out I stopped talking about her as the best guitaris in the world but as this awesome indieish guitar player who makes great popish songs as well as badass post rocky tracks.

Then when I bought the con....which Kaki got me into Teagan and Sara (sound like the opposite of alot of people here!) I felt like the direction made more and more sense. I've always applauded Kaki for following the trends she wants to and making music for herself and not nessisarilly caving to what everybody else wants.

I first heard it live in Rome and Milan. It was a bit strange at first: to hear her sing so much more than usual, to see her play a deluxe telecaster and to see someone other than Matt sitting behind the drumkit.

Telecasters are my favorite guitars, so this change was more than welcome. I always believed Kaki's vocals had a lot of potential: she's obviously not a virtuoso singer as she is a virtuoso guitarist, but she has a lot of personality and her voice is really expressive. She's an all-round artist and it was nice to see how she coped with writing an album where vocals and lyrics are so prominent. Jordan is a really good drummer and his contribution to the new songs is great, I'm not really sure if he fits the mood of Kaki's older repertoire, but you can't ignore the fact that he's made a huge job in a very short lapse of time, so big thumbs up!

At the second show I was already into the songs, it's amazing how their impact was so immediate. By the time I had put the record on for the first time I could already sing along to most of the lyrics. And that only happens with a great pop record. Of course Kaki's palette of sounds is well beyond pop music. But she always had these two attitudes of pop simplicity and jazzy complexity. It shouldn't be a surpirsed if she gave herself the chance to express that pop-rock attitude a little bit more. It's still Kaki, and it rocks!

Kraftastic wrote:
Then when I bought the con....which Kaki got me into Teagan and Sara (sound like the opposite of alot of people here!) I felt like the direction made more and more sense. I've always applauded Kaki for following the trends she wants to and making music for herself and not nessisarilly caving to what everybody else wants.

Oh you're not alone there, that's the order it was for me too!
Also, definitely agreeing with your sentiments here *nods*

acharis wrote:

Oh you're not alone there, that's the order it was for me too!
Also, definitely agreeing with your sentiments here *nods*

as much as i enjoyed it I had my fingers crossed for something like the Mexican Teenagers ep but full length. I make mix's of Kaki that just have the post rocky instrumentals on it.


They just blend so well!

I'm completely obsessed with this album right now... I think it's my favorite of all her releases. I'm happy with the direction she took and really dig her dark side. Favorite tracks are Spit It Back In My Mouth (this song has a drug-like effect on my mind) and Death Head.

At first I was a bit surprised at the leap in direction (had I heard the Mexican Teenagers EP beforehand it may not of been such a surprise). Three tracks stuck out immediately and are still my favorites: "Spit it Back In My Mouth" (so catchy!), "My Nerves That Committed Suicide" (I'm a rocker at heart - AWESOME song), and "Sunnyside" (beautiful lyrics, old-school Kaki). But the rest of it was so different it took time to digest.

Looking at "Junior" like a soundtrack really does help. I started listening to it on long walks or drives where the music would weave into the landscape around me, not requiring my full attention. Just let it soak in. I eventually had the realization that this album wasn't about Kaki playing guitar, it was about flat out RAWK. When I started looking at it that way, Junior took on a whole new dimension.

I can look at my iTunes and say, "Well, Dreaming of Revenge has more 5-star rated songs so it must be my favorite" but I can't do that with Kaki's music because each album is so unique and there are many songs on each album I couldn't do without. Right now Junior is not my favorite of her albums but like the others, the more I listen, the more I like it and relate to it and I'm glad to get to know it - it still gets far more play than most of the rest of my music collection.

I like hearing Kaki's voice up front and assertive - that's a great addition. Though a big part of me yearns for her guitar playing to be up front and center like previous works, when I look at it in comparison to other indie-punk albums in my collection I can feel the unique forward momentum her picking gives to the songs. The more comparatively experimental tracks are hugely impressive to me in their emotion and power and yet still have that Kaki King flavor that I think most fans recognize.

Above all, what this says to me is that Kaki can stand on her own playing pretty much any genre she likes. I would LOVE to hear her continue to evolve and spread out into all kinds of genres as well as keep on mixing it up the way she's done all along.