At five tracks and less than twenty-three minutes in length, David King’s EP Take Me Home doesn’t give itself much time to make an impression, but it’d still be able to leave an excellent one in half that time. From the first song, “Strange Freedom”, King shows himself to be a strong lyricist and equally strong, if not stronger, songwriter. Despite the short run time, the EP manages to feature two different yet similarly styled types of songs, beginning with two guitar driven songs and transitioning to songs with more layered pianos and keyboards. Most of Take Me Home is written in 3/4 time, giving many of the tracks a waltz beat and a lyrical rhythm that flows smoothly from track to track.
Sonically, King’s music style is very reminiscent of The Wallflowers, particularly on the keyboard led numbers. King’s voice and delivery is somewhat akin to Jakob Dylan’s too, making the comparison stronger; though King’s lyrics are less obtuse and more direct than Dylan’s. The lyrics are a significant drawing point to the EP, as evidenced on “Strange Freedom”‘s repeated lyric “There’s a strange freedom in knowing/the one that you love doesn’t love you back”, sung over the song’s coda. The subject matter doesn’t stray too far from the concepts of love, pining, and heartache, but King can craft some wonderful imagery such as “Was my apartment cold that evening or, did my shoulder and arms feel just right” from “Somehow Today.” The piano and guitar meshing together on said song to create a hypnotic repeating quality that sounds similar to Coldplay’s “Clocks”, with that tone perfectly matching and drawing out the emotions contained within the words. Even the noise of King’s hands squeaking along the frets of his guitar adds to the enchanting rhythm.
The title track is the most dynamic of the five songs as it develops from its acoustic guitar base to the keyboard heavy sound that features more on the second half of the EP. The percussion is non-existent to start, lightly kicks in to change the time signature, and eventually develops into booming drum fills that propel the chorus of an otherwise low-key song. This kind of percussion is generally what prevails on most of the songs. Aside from the shuffle beat on “Strange Freedom”, king chooses to put the percussion in the background, allowing the full force of his words to carry through.
The remaining songs, “The Winter” and “As Closed” are similarly written in how the verses have very light instrumentation and the choruses very layered sounds. King doesn’t create riffs so much as he plays a few repeated notes during the verse that again, allow his voice and words to be the song. Anyone seeking a guitar solo would be hard-pressed to find one throughout the extended player, with the closest thing being the banjo solo on the breakdown of “As Closed”. But this is a kind of microcosm to the EP as a whole; there’s no one thing or part that truly stands out, instead it all coalesces into a series of powerful arrangements, and exemplary songwriting.
Take Me Home works incredibly well as an EP; it doesn’t overstay its welcome and leaves a craving for more afterward. David Robert King is a solid performer, but a stellar songwriter and lyricist. The pleasant arrangements and deep lyrics will appeal to listeners across genres and is a large step-up from the adult contemporary fare of recent years. With all good fortune, the music world can look forward to a full-length recording of King’s in the future; but for now, Take Me Home will do just fine.
Review by Heath Andrews
