The news earlier this month that London’s The King Blues had disbanded following the completion of their (now swansong) album Long Live The Struggle sent ripples of confusion through the industry and created huge distress among the group’s fans. Within minutes of the announcement, the news had trended world wide on Twitter and appeared on hundreds of social networking platforms and websites.
While the band’s demise is quite clearly a tragedy for music (who else fused the melodic touch of Bob Marley with the polemic of Joe Strummer?), the one ray of hope is that the aforementioned Long Live The Struggle will be coming out on 2 July through Transmission Recordings. And as a taster of what to expect from what is quite possibly The King Blues’ finest work, a free download of ‘Modern Life Has Let Me Down’ is readily available here: link
Combining the traits of a classic King Blues anthem (think plenty of energy, angry politics and a great hool) with a more sophisticated and polished production (courtesy of LA-based superstar producer, John ‘Feldy’ Feldmann), ‘Modern Life Has Let Me Down’ is a rant against the moribund and listless routine of living a…well, modern life. Singer, Itch Fox is in fine fettle both vocally and lyrically spitting out gems of lines including Remind yourself your tie is not a noose and the Jimmy-from-Quadropehnia-esque You can take this job and shove it. Even posthumously the King Blues still do what they always did best: producing a rallying cry that sounds neither pompous nor judgemental.
The King is dead. Long live the King Blues. And the struggle.