ive been hearing todays song quite a bit lately and while it didnt immediately strike me, i kind of love the weirdness of it all now. the band is wild beasts, a quartet from kendal, england. they released their second album earlier this year, “two dancers”, which has been met with pretty critical acclaim from all sorts of media outlets and bloggers. todays song is the albums third track, the appropriately titled “all the kings men”. there is so much to listen to and love about this track. it opens with a quick guitar riff thats built upon with the understated “ohh ohh ohh ohh”s that carry us through most of the song, before the lull is interrupted by the shrill falsetto of singer hayden thorpe. but in my minimal research, it appears that the majority of the rest of the song is actually by the other singer in the band, tom fleming. their voices work so well together though that its pretty impossible to even tell there are two singers in the song.
i guess the song doesnt really seem that weird until you read the lyrics in this one. its essentially a tale of all the women coming to bang the king to bear him an heir to the throne. but have no fear, the sound of this song makes this medieval theme seem way cooler than it sounds. i dont think the feminist contigent of the dailybeatz audience would be too happy with the lyrics of this song, but it was a simpler time back then. the band speaks of birthing machines and shrilly cry “hatch me! hatch me!” its kind of like an early example of groupies, as the song tells the whole story of the king choosing his baby momma and ending with his “broken body”, presumably from all the procreation hes been doing. great track.
buy this track on itunes
