Kyle Craft

Since I write about music it's a given that I listen to a lot of music. This doesn't make my opinion any more or less valid than yours, but I can confidently say that Kyle Craft's new album Dolls of Highland doesn't sound like ANYTHING out there today. At least not anything that I've come across. 

It's uniqueness comes two fold.....

First fold is Kyle Craft's voice. As soon as I heard his voice at almost 30 seconds into the first song it sounded familiar. Like it was tattoo'd on my brain from long ago, yet I couldn't place it. BUT I was certain I've head this motherfucker before because nobody sounds like him PERIOD. It's like when a song comes on the radio you've never heard before, but know it's Don Henley because nobody else sounds like fucking Don Henley. Or Chris Cornell. Or Roy Orbison. Or Tom Waitts. Or DMX. Or whoever you want to plug in to my 'unique sounding singer' hole. 

It turned out that my mind wasn't playing tricks on me. After sharing the album with Joel he instantly said 'That's the dude from Gashcat.' And if you don't know who Gashcat is then check out the cover they did for our Pop Cultures Collide feature 3 years ago - it was the Bowie song from Labryinth: 'As The World Falls Down'. 

Now, that last paragraph not only serves as a self-serving plug of our validity in the music scene. Seriously, we are pretty fucking cool. It also serves as a perfect segue into my second point of this reveiw....

Second fold is stylistically. Kyle Craft's music is a throw back to the true glam era of the 70's when the lyrics told stories like a show tune and the piano was honky tonky hunky dory. Other than hearing these records at the house of your uncle who still dresses up for Halloween, you don't hear glam like this today. Sure, artists stick the tip of their dip stick in that glitter, but they don't fully commit. 

But to simply say the Kyle Craft is 'committing' to a certain style undermines him as an artist because it sounds like he is grasping for something, which he isn't. The music, the style, the vibe, or whatever you want to call it just exudes from his being. It's as el natural as the deodorant that doesn't give my pits a rash. 

So, go give Dolls of Highland a spin because I know you want to listen to something new and fresh. The album comes out via Sub Pop this Friday, April 29th and you can pre-order it here.

And now a quick word from Joel: 

Kyle Craft's voice still reminds me of standing at my kitchen counter with an open laptop and a glass of red wine, listening to the first Gashcat album and writing about how fucking awesome it was. The dude left an imprint on me because just the thought of his voice gives me a reason to smile. 

I said it (or something like it) in my initial review three years ago and it's true today, but Kyle's voice makes me feel like I'm shoeless in the grass and the sun hasn't come up to dry off the dew yet. It's so fucking raw and powerful that he wouldn't need a mic at all, except for the fact that now there's more and more people noticing. Clubs have PA systems just so the band can be as loud as Kyle. 

I'm proud of this dude and I've never even met him in person (because when Gashcat came thru Chicago I had all these kids bro).