King's X - Gretchen Goes to Nebraska

Out of the Silent Planet put King's X "out there". Gretchen Goes to Nebraska put them on the map by honing nearly every edge of the rough diamond that was their sound. Just as the cover artwork suggested, it was a portal to a different realm, solidifying a sonic template for the band's immediate future and garnering them a (relatively) large amount of critical and commercial buzz. Also, I'm just now seeing the band member's faces on the trees right there, so that's pretty sweet.

In a lot of ways, Gretchen Goes to Nebraska is simply a more fully realized take on the type of material found on Out of the Silent Planet: the mix of hard rock chunk and gospel-lite vocal harmonies paired with decidedly progressive or at least alternative composition is as present as ever, with a bigger emphasis (and with a bigger success rate) on a more knotty, intricate songwriting style that allowed the group more room to flex their muscles. Several of the songs contained herein have remained in live rotation ever since and this was one of two times that King's X forced their way into mainstream rock radio on the back of the anthemic swagger of "Over My Head". So why don't I like it? Well, clearly I do, that's why I'm bothering to expend energy on writing about it, or I hate it - either way I'm burning calories.

I've actually always had a tough time getting through this whole thing. "Out of the Silent Planet" has that trademark slithering King's X riff but it goes on for about 2 minutes too long, and that's kind of just a good description of Gretchen Goes to Nebraska overall: good ideas, just maybe off somehow in small ways. Usually it was length ("Fall on Me", "The Burning Down"), other times they got too proggy for their own good ("Everybody Knows a Little Bit of Something", "Pleiades"), but I always felt that for every hot rod like "Don't Believe It (It's Easier Said Than Done)" there was a clunker around the bend to ruin the disc's flow. Things are certainly helped by the improved production heard here - no more weird Dixie™ paper plate drum heads or bass parts recorded at 30,000 leagues down and overall Gretchen is a big leap up in terms of fidelity across the board. Producer Sam Taylor and engineer Steve Ames' (...hum?!) influence is felt even more strongly on this record than previously and it's fascinating to here the difference between the Houston-specific style of the first 4 King's X CDs that was thanks in no small part to the work of these guys and the decidedly heavier, more compressed production of the material after Dogman, but that's skipping a couple of releases. As it stands (and as I listen to it again while writing this),  Gretchen Goes to Nebraska stands tall among King's X hefty discography for it's ballsy combination of high-falootin' prog rock aspirations ("Pleiades", cough) and deep-fried Southern boogie roots. Yes, you can use that description for a lot of this band's material, but the fact that Gretchen so vividly captures that elusive qualia of what fans will invariably reach to when asked "What do they sound like?" is a partial explanation for it's considerable staying power.

B