Elle King-Shake The Spirit

About 3 years after releasing her debut album with the hit song "Ex's and Oh's," Elle King has released her sophomore album, Shake the Spirit, which largely revolves around the intense hardships that she experienced during that time. Stylistically, she has included a wide range of genres like R&B, Blues, Rock, and Western. Overall, there's a very vintage feel to the whole album, making it particularly reminiscent of old Rock n' Roll. A couple of the songs even resemble 50s and 60s Pop. It feels as though she wove almost all of her influencial genres into one album. Hardly any two songs sound like exactly the same style, but she did it in a way that it works, largely because they all have such an old-fashioned sound.

The subject matter of the first few tracks; "Talk of the Town," "Baby Outlaw," and "Shame," goes back to many of King's previous releases, largely expressing her own rebellious and free behavior. They're bold, fun songs to get any listeners moving. Then starting with "Man's Man," the lyrics turn bitterly personal. The focused bass riff and deep, serious tone of King's voice set the mood for a clearly angry and accusatory track that reveals a few too many specific details to be able to pass off as anything but a deeply personal outlet. Even the tempo change from the others supports this point, as it slows down after the first tracks that contain some of the similar edge, but are definitely more picked-up. You can have a listen for yourself to hear exactly what she reveals but to briefly sum up, she starts getting into the marriage that she entered extremely quickly and her tough-fronted "manly" husband's troubling actions, including an implicated deception.

In "Naturally Pretty Girls," she brings back some of her sassy, upbeat personality and directs it towards the conventional beauties that society glorifies; or at least those who view them as such. While "Told You So" maintains a similar upbeatness instrumentally and melodically, the lyrics show that she feel very irritable. Essentially she's telling everyone, presumably those who gave warnings against her husband/marriage, to not confront her about it and say the words "I told you so." At the very end, the band suddenly drops out so she's left singing the final phrase, "He's got a new girl, yeah yeah I know." This is followed by an intense, eerie echo as though she were shouting this into a dark void. Then it goes into "Good Thing Gone;" a slow, heartfelt lament pouring out all the regret from the mistakes and pain of both parties. It feels as though once she finished letting out her frustration that was encased in a slightly edgy but fun beat in the aftermath of the divorce, she suddenly fell into the devastating reality of everything that happened in the relationship, good and bad. This is the song that King has said she was only able to record once, because she was barely able to get through it without breaking down. Throughout the song you can hear the very real pain in her voice, and particularly towards the end you hear her starting to shake from the emotion.

"Runaway" keeps the tone relatively sad and mellow, but as a tune that sounds like it came right out of the 50s. It really makes you feel like you're listening to a jukebox at a diner or at an old school dance. In this she discusses her tendency to run and cut herself off during tough times, which developed as a defense mechanism after a number of experiences that caused her pain and heartbreak.

"It Girl" has a beat that immediately makes me think of a German Oompah band that you would hear at Oktoberfest. That being said, it's not one of my personal favorites off the album, but still a very interesting addition. The story of this one is how she was taught by the popular girls in school how to be as loved as they were. Of course, also known as "peer pressure."

"Ram Jam" is probably the most Alt-Rock track on the album and is almost guaranteed to make you want to jump up and dance. It's got medium-tempo, finger-snapping verses with a biting chorus that eventually goes into an instrumental bridge that very strongly and pleasantly resembles the Beatles. Throughout, a brass horn section is included that really makes the pounding beat.

The mood dips back down to lamenting in the next two tracks, "Sober" and "Chained." They of course go back to the depression and regret that occurs after the break-up. The theme of the former can be pretty fairly represented by its lyrics "I'll fix it all when I'm sober." In the latter, King is joined by Cameron Neal to form a bittersweet duet. Both songs are beautifully emotional and smooth with soft, sweet vocals that can transfer you to their melancholy mental space.

The album finishes off with "Little Bit of Lovin'" to sum up how she's come out of this whole experience as a stronger person who fought so hard to conquer her trauma and appreciate her life and herself. Her monologue in the middle is like an empowering speech that further pushes the song's message. She seems to want to make clear, both in the song and when she talks about it outside, that one of the most important parts of this message is that after everything, she's still found it within herself to be able to spread some more love. And that she is also worthy of it.

What's amazing about Shake the Spirit is how utterly raw and personal her stories are. It felt like her autobiography of that critical and excruciating part of her life; and the back and forth order of songs going from tough, angry, sad, back to tough, etc. well represents the ups and downs of recovering from these experiences. Elle King accomplished something truly great with this record. Not only in song-writing, but also in the art of creating the album that not all people seem to understand.

#elleking #newalbum #musicreview #alternativerock #rb #blues #westernrock