Kula Shaker’s Lucky Number EP is an appetizer of the forthcoming Wormslayer album which will be released at the end of January. With subversive lyrics and broad historical and cultural inspirations, there is an unforced complexity to this EP, which makes it a cut above.
Our advice for the listener is…buckle up.
“Lucky Number,” the title track, tunes up its strings and hooks us in quickly with sunshine pop-esque swirling guitars mixed with hopeful lyrics. As luck would have it, it’s easily the jammiest tune, so rightly intrigues the listener from the start. “Be Merciful,” a slow, lonely folk ballad halfway through, builds suspense with seduction, as lead singer Crispian Mills croons the lyrics “your crooked smile dances on a serpent for your lover’s eyes.” And just as you are vibing with this sensitive albeit sinister Beatles “Blackbird”-like intimacy, we are suddenly transported into the ethereal, psychedelia we would usually expect from the group.
Kula Shaker, in their 3rd decade of music-making, (minus a 5 year hiatus) is known for an eclectic mix of influences, from eastern mysticism, (often using classical Indian instruments), to something that would have been played at Woodstock (were the members old enough). Despite the spiritual layers and hippy space rock beats, Kula Shaker is still BritPop. When you hear their “Good Money” track, Mills isn’t just John Lennon singing “Sgt. Pepper Lonely Hearts Club Band”; he blends a 90’s Richard Ashcroft and spoken lyrics à la “Parklife.” If you were looking for a predictable playlist, you will not find it here.
Jay Darlington’s performance on the Hammond organ beautifully invokes The Doors on “Broke as Folk.” The military- style march in “Charge of the Light Brigade” reminds us of the Tennyson poem and the dark time in British history while also warning us of perhaps a rise in the use of military and government to quell our freedoms. It certainly seems timely in the States to hear:
They’re breaking the law
These masters of war
They come from behind
They don’t knock at the door
There are powerfully evocative lyrics of danger, seduction, greed, oppression, sacrifice, and even hopefulness, and we find ourselves feeling bursts of wildness among stretches of serenity. The Lucky Number EP defies classification, and that’s what makes it so appealing.
Each track carves a new path and Kula Shaker, experimenting with the likes of jangle-pop, psych-rock, shoegaze, and counterculture idealism creates this work of art with many woven layers. It’s thrilling to get these surprise flavors bubbling to the surface in this melting pot EP, and I can only hope that the full-length album will be even more thrilling. Kula Shaker’s Wormslayer album releases on January 30th.
