King Krule – SHHHHHHH! Review

It is too early in the morning to count the H in this King Krule single. Let us assume a few and allow for a multitude of answers. Time moves at lightning speed so to find Space Heavy was a year ago is a shock to the system. Like a gut punch delivered by a champion boxer, the keeled-over wheezing is followed by a sharp uppercut, in the form of an extended play. Leftovers from the Space Heavy days which did not quite fit the context of the album but were good enough to warrant a release. Artists depend on this release style with greater frequency and are welcome to use it. It is a strong way to get songs out there which do not fit the emotional strength of the initial piece or may fit but not in the immediate context. SHHHHHHH! has the run of strong material needed to warrant listening to it. 

Extra songs must extend and elongate the album, even if they do not fit. Think back to Space Heavy and engage those charming, intimate occasions through a new lens. This is, effectively, what King Krule does. Achtung! and the songs to follow are tremendous pieces of work but it is clear to hear why they did not make it on the album. They are too leftfield for the emotive range fielded by King Krule on last year’s release to appear here. Instrumental fun on the first SHHHHHHH! song keeps it whirring away, nice and light. There is very little heavy or hearty material here and much of it feels like messing around with the tools at hand. Nothing wrong with that, King Krule provides some intense and interesting opportunities to behold. Time for Slurp certainly has an instrumental splendour to work with. 

As do all of the King Krule pieces from Space Heavy and beyond. These little extra pieces, remnants of what did not work but was nearly there, are a neat example of excess being a creative struggle rather than an overworked mind. Discarded they may be, there is still an abundance of heart to be heard in these four songs. Whaleshark is a beautiful piece, a softer-spoken bit of work where saxophones and honest admissions take hold. Charming work all in all, and the most deserving song of the four. It is the track which makes SHHHHHHH! worth returning to. It works without the context of its preceding, almost vicious-like sound in comparison, but those pieces feel like a welcome build to the burning passions of its latter half.  

Despite the joys of Whaleshark, the real meat of this EP appears to be the six-minute powerhouse It’s All Soup Now. Fading in and out, moving like the crashing waves which appear to have deserted the animals in the prior song, It’s All Soup Now is all about instrumental build. It feels more like an experiment in this effort to piece items together than it does anything tangible or complete. In and out it fades, high-pitched brass invading the quiet and bubbling over into some sci-fi-like sounds and shrill momentum. SHHHHHHH! comes together well, an EP for the absolute completionists who want to understand Space Heavy that little bit more.