Crowned King

Crowned King are a ska band from British Columbia. But enough about them, let's talk about what you really want to hear - me. I'd never heard of Crowned King until I saw them opening for Mindless Self Indulgence and Sum 41 back in February '03. They put on a great live show, which included vocalist Shaun Frank breathing fire and tromboner (haha...) Jon Luccock hooking a fire extinguisher up to his trombone. I bought their independent debut on the way out, and have been following the band since. They recently got signed to a major, so if they make it big, I can say I liked them before they were cool. And that gives me major scene points.

Tempting Fate (2000) 8 Thumbs Up

This is Crowned King's independent debut album, that was only ever sold at their shows. Despite the lack of commercial backing (and who needs that anyway?) this CD is 11 tracks of good, catchy ska. The production is amazing. It isn't lo-fi, as you might expect for an independently released album, but isn't slick or overproduced. The horn section and guitars are mixed evenly, so you get all the ska sound you need with enough rock to keep you from falling asleep. Shaun Frank, the vocalist, sounds very rough and stiff, though. He sounded much better when I saw the band live before buying the album, but that's probably 3 extra years of experience rather than poor production.

You may or may not have heard the single "A Million Pictures," which had a video on MuchMusic they never played. The opening track "Each and Everyday" has got to be the best on this album, but "S.O.S. (Save Our Scene)," "My Hero," and "Farewell" are notable, too. The songs occasionally start to blend into each other, but maybe that's just because I'm not too good with ska. Either way, this is one cool ska album and deserved to win all those indie music awards it apparantly won. Good work Vancouver, you've done something right.

Break the Silence (2003) 8 Thumbs Up

Okay, first things first. The production on this album is horrible, which is very surprising considering it's on a major label. I mean, Shaun has finally developed vocal abilities, but the vocals are turned so low in the mix that you can barely tell! And the guitars and horns sound almost unreal, like they've been synthesized by a machine or something. Arnold Lanni, who did an ass-kicking job with Our Lady Peace, has done a really shoddy job. Maybe they made him work overtime or something? This album marks Crowned King's departure from straight-forward ska and into more or less punk with horns. The horn section adds as a backdrop to their songs instead of being the focused, and though ska fans may be appaled, I think it's great! It fits them better than their former sound.

Just like with Tempting Fate, Crowned King opens their CD with one of the greatest tracks on the album, "Playing God." They've gotten really political with this album, with songs like "Tired Eyes" and "Turn It Up We're Going Down," instead of continuously pounding out happy ska anthems. But hey, there's still plenty of good headbanging songs, like the first single "Don't Wanna Go" or "All That She Wanted." "One In A Million" actually sounds like a cross between ska and emo, and despite the lame trendiness of both genres, turns out really cool. It's an amazing improvement over Tempting Fate - too bad the production sounds horrible.

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