Album Review: The Duke & the King by The Duke & the King

Although the Duke & the King is an American band hailing from the Catskills Mountains, this self-titled disc is their first domestic release, a compilation culled from the contents of two previous albums released in Europe. That a U.S. group can only get a record out in the U.S. through the American subsidiary of a British label (Silva Screen's newly formed So imprint) may be explained, at least somewhat, by the music.

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When an album begins with the line “If you ever get famous, don’t forget about me/I hope it’s everything that you thought it would be,” it’s easy to imagine that most people might be a little dubious. After all, hasn’t the message been written or sung a hundred times before? Could it ever be sung in a way that was interesting and fresh, ever again? And isn’t the person singing it probably already at least a little famous? The Duke and The King, who already have a bit of a following in Britain, have collected tracks from their previous two albums for this self-titled U.S release. And indeed, while musically decent, lyrical brilliance is not their forte, at least if this collection is anything to go by.

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