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Kingen
Ride With Me
Black Cat Songs
"I took a master class in misery and heartache/I got an A-plus studying bitterness and greed," sings Sweden's Kingen on his new album Ride With Me. Doleful admission aside, Ride With Me is anything but downcast; on the contrary, it's an invigorating blast of rock and roll that is as pure as any album you'll hear all year. Sveg, Harjadlen's answer to Brian Setzer—like the former Stray Cat, Kingen fronts the big band The Blue Flamingo Orchestra and he's also an alum of Sweden's legendary The Boppers—Kingen is a commanding musical presence able to deftly switch from swing to soul and from R&B to jazz. The pitch-perfect rockabilly of "Mary Ann" is impossible to resist; the R&B-tinged "She's Mine" is augmented by a brilliant saxophone solo; and the parking lot come on of "31-00-54" sounds like a lost classic from the '50s. Elsewhere, there's the jump blues of "Be-bop Street," the flirtatious title track rave-up and the gentle soul of "I Don't Wanna Lose You" which begins with a dead-on Stevie Wonder homage. "I'm gonna flush this bitter pill/I need something better," Kingen sings on "Mary Ann"—he must have found it because Ride With Me is filled with the kind of jump, snap and vigor of a man who's feeling a little bit better than fantastic.
—Alex Green
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