This is a great release. Even if like me Kings X wasn’t that much of an important band to you back in the day there were elements of the band I always enjoyed – primarily Ty Tabor’s guitar and the initial mystery of his ‘hidden’ tone. Incredibly ‘Alien Beans’ (named after Tabor’s home studio) is his eighth solo record and unlike Kings X it’s an album that’s both immediately accessible to anyone who loves thoughtful bluesy rock and beautifully constructed. if you want more (and let’s face it who doesn’t these days) the ten new tracks are augmented by a second disc of re-recorded and re-mastered tracks from his previous releases over the years,
After the burst of slightly eastern flavoured guitar that forms the instrumental title track, the elemental Blues thrust of ‘Freight Train’ kicks in and immediately wins you over. It’s the most frenetic song here, hard and heavy on the blues and immediately manages to blow away and preconception you might have had coming in. ‘Johnny Guitar’ follows in that same bluesy bluster but is far more laid back before the delicacy of ‘So Here’s To You’ let’s Ty’s voice do the work over the economical guitar shapes.
‘Back It Down’ wakes us back up from that gentle contemplation with a killer drum sound and wailing guitars before ‘Somebody Lied’ turns us off the main highway down a dusty blue highway and ‘This Time’ sidesteps into languid, dreamy pop-laced guitar rock territory. The styles and intonations mix beautifully.
‘Heavily Twisted’ starts inauspiciously enough with some searching noises before settling into a smooth slow groove that is both comforting and peaceful before the song takes a more difficult path and the lilting solo kicks in. It’s simply beautiful and could well have closed the album it’s that memorable. As it is the record is rounded out by the wonderful, immediate mid-tempo ‘Until This Day Is Done’ and the more wistful promise of ‘Deeper Place’ – a song that wouldn’t sound out of place on a Kings X release.
One of my favourites songs on the bonus disc is the opening track: the fuzzy groove of ”Cause we Believed (Blame It)’ from 2008’s ‘Balance’ album, it sounds great here and it’s statement of discontent with the world is relevant as ever today. The rest of the disc serves to show you just what a huge talent Tabor has been over the years and remains with this latest collection of songs.
Maybe even my favourite Ty Tabor so far.
