Album of the Week: King Krule - Space Heavy | 2023 Week 23

It’s hard to believe that Archy Marshall is just 28. The singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, rapper & producer best known as King Krule (amidst a myriad of other incredibly named aliases including Zoo Kid, DJ JD Sports and Edgar the Beatmaker) shot to alternative music world stardom ten years ago with his stunning debut album 6 Feet Beneath The Moon dropping when he was just 18, introducing the world to his unique blend of genres from punk, shoegaze, jazz, indie rock, post-punk, hip hop, trip hop and more.

Fast forward to 2023 and a couple of albums later and Archy’s back with his fourth album as King Krule, the epic and ambitious fifteen tracks that are Space Heavy. Written from 2020 to 2022 between London & Liverpool, the ideas that would eventually become Space Heavy took shape during the commutes between the two cities he was living in. During these commutes, Archy found himself becoming increasingly interested in the concept of “the space between” from a literal influence to a metaphorical musing, with these thoughts finding there way onto the album as he explores the spaces of lost connections, lost love and losing people to “the guillotine of the universe”.

Broadly picking up where 2020’s Man Alive! left off, Space Heavy is packed with classic King Krule soundscapes and atmospheres through a melting pot of cinematic, fuzzy, moody, brooding, dreamy, sometimes stripped back sounds that strike the balance between pushing his sound forward without sounding too different, sure to please fans both new and old alike. Space Heavy is also an achievement in album programming, having an amazing flow and sense of progression with many tracks bleeding into one another, blurring the lines where one finishes and the next starts as heard on many of the all time classics.

Another achievement in a career most musicians double his age can only dream of having, King Krule’s a bloody treasure and we’re lucky to have him.

The best of the rest of this week's records:

Amaarae - Fountain Baby [Interscope] USA

R&B / Hip Hop

Christine and the Queens - Paranoïa, Angels, True Love [Because Music] FRA

Alternative / Electronic

feeble little horse - Girl with Fish [Saddle Creek] USA

Alternative / Rock

Jayda G - Guy [Ninja Tune] CAN

Electronic

Katy Steele - Big Star [Love and a Shotgun] AUS

Pop

Nicholas Allbrook - Manganese [Spinning Top] AUS

Alternative

Squid - O Monolith [Warp] ENG

Alternative / Rock

This Is The Kit - Careful Of Your Keepers [Rough Trade Records] ENG

Alternative / Folk

Youth Lagoon - Heaven Is A Junkyard [Fat Possum] USA

Alternative