King Khan & the Shrines
The Supreme Genius of King Khan and the Shrines (Vice)
By Emily Becker
Published: June 26th, 2008 | 12:00am
On The Supreme Genius of King Khan & the Shrines, Berliner-by-way-of-Montreal King Khan and his largish band revisit classic sounds reminiscent of Nugget-era garage rock and James Brown. Although Supreme Genius is Khan and company’s fourth full-length, the CD includes no new material, but rather offers bits and pieces from the band’s three previous releases and a handful of singles.
Khan hails from Montreal, currently resides in Berlin, and shares his moniker with Bollywood mega-star Shahrukh Khan — but his lyrics are often less than cosmopolitan. His attempts to deliver rocking, retro tunes are bloated with male swagger and leave the record with a lyrical black eye. With “Took My Lady To Dinner,” which features the unfortunate chorus, “She’s fat/ She’s ugly / I really, really love her,” the sentiment might not be too far off from Shakespeare (as in "My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun," from Sonnet 130), but Khan isn’t deconstructing poetic convention; instead he’s taking a piss at his girl’s expense in front of his friends. Likewise, “I Wanna Be a Girl” may borrow its punky urgency from the Stooges, but the lyrics, "The way they bitch and the way they curse / The way they smell and the things in their purse," are an annoyance.
Fortunately, other tracks fare better: “Torture” brings the power of the MC5 to a tale of heartbreak; “Welfare Bread” features a kinder, though still chauvinistic, Khan telling his love, “If I told you your heart belongs to me now / You could hold your head up high in the air”; “Burnin’ Inside” brings it all home with a mix of soulful organ, bluesy horns, and a blistering guitar solo; Khan wails like the Godfather of Soul himself on “Destroyer,” from Mr. Supernatural (2004); and “Que Lindo Sueño” changes the tempo, employing a guitar twang reminiscent of “Rawhide.”
Khan’s vocals resemble Ian Svevonius’ (ex- the Nation of Ulysses, the Make-Up, Weird War) who, like Khan, boasts a larger-than-life personality and a shared fascination for meshing rock and soul — but unlike Khan, Svevonius delivered a memorable hook and a meaningful lyric. Khan could have chosen any number of tracks from his previous releases, so one has to wonder how the juvenile, attention-getting lyrics made the cut.
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Issue #35
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