Kula Shaker

Strangefolk

1969-12-31

It’s kind of amazing how the spirit of rock music can still be tapped into with bravura some five decades after its inception. The White Stripes’ White Blood Cells is a great example. It’s a rock album, through and through, to its core, and there’s no arguing it. In its own way, Kula Shaker’s Strangefolk is just as much a rock album as White Blood Cells, but it’s a bit more elusive. The songs here tend to arch towards times uncertain, as opposed to the past. Of course, there are some exceptions. There’s nothing forward-leaning about songs like “Fool That I Am” or “Great Dictator (of the Free World)” (the latter track contains a chorus with an unsurprising play on words), but they’re still enjoyable. Then there’s the other songs, which are sometimes little more than strange interludes (like “Song of Love/Narayana”, which sounds like a fairy tale filtered through the Sci-Fi Channel), and sometimes shifting space-rock prophecies (the title track “Strangefolk”). I haven’t followed the career of Kula Shaker, so I can’t say for certain if Strangefolk was worth the eight year wait, but I enjoyed it. One final note: the best two tracks on this album were the “bonus tracks” that appeared at the end of the album (“Persephone” and “Super CB Operator”). Odd. – Adam Goran, WYCE Intern

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Compiled by the WYCE Journalism Club

The opinions expressed in these reviews are those of the individual volunteers that submitted the article and do not necessarily reflect the views of WYCE or GRCMC; nor its staff, donors, or affiliates.