Album Review: King Tuff - King Tuff

Kyle Thomas – until now best known for playing with J Mascis in stoner metallers Witch and fronting Sub Pop labelmates Happy Birthday – has released his second album under the King Tuff moniker, following 2008's Was Dead. It's a foray into 'glam-garage' – fuzzy rock'n'roll with swathes of Marc Bolan bombast and eccentricity – the irresistible songs jam-packed with hooks and insidious melodies but deranged and scruffy enough to keep purveyors of outsider culture interested as well.

The feelgood fuzz of slacker paean Alone & Stoned melts deliciously into the incredibly incessant Keep On Movin', with its bouncing bassline and helium call-and-response vocals. Indeed there are plenty of such random vocal performances, the songs all crazy and disjointed but somehow flowing together perfectly. It's full of twists – the straight-up exuberant garage of Stranger gets psych-y towards the end before the folk troubadour ruminations of the handclap-happy Baby Don't Break burst into a country jamboree, showcasing the diversity not just across the album but amongst individual tracks. The pastoral pop of Evergreen is the change of pace before the humble beginnings of Swamp Of Love burst into a rousing anthemic finale, and the vibrant bar-room stomp of closer Hit & Run is a catchy-as-fuck reminder that Thomas has talent to burn.

It's all slightly confounding, but in a way that drags you back in rather than deters – every song is jammed full of ideas and an interesting excursion in its own right, even if they occasionally end up in odd places. King Tuff's twisted bubblegum will no doubt soundtrack a heap of northern hemisphere summer binges, but it should keep a few of us warm during our southern winter as well.