When I Was a Young King

Album Review

[The] Caseworker's second album finds the quartet continuing on nicely from its enjoyable debut. One thing's for sure, though: thanks to Conor Jonathan's vocals and Will Waghorn's beats especially, the opening title track couldn't wear its Beta Band jones on its sleeve any harder if it tried. (It's not a bad thing, but it's hard not to compulsively check one's stereo or computer to see if Three E.P.s is playing.) Still, inspirations are what they are, and When I Was a Young King is just enough of a gentle refusion of various strands of end of the 20th century rock to work well in another decade. Jonathan's easy delivery of the lyrics sets a soothing tone that's not a snorefest, working the angle of often being another instrument to good effect — consider how he matches the upward lift of the chorus on the appropriately titled "The Kick" or how it slips between the crisp notes on "State," balancing the metronomic swing of the song with his own blissed-out drift. It could also be their times, but somehow they make old moves sound thrilling again, at least in context — "Markievicz's Walls" has a rich, full feeling to its glazed feedback that feels like early-'90s indie refracted through older eyes, while "My Quare Moon" has the warm detail of a band like the Red House Painters, but with both a lighter air and somewhat faster speed. In ways the album is best heard as a piece than as a collection of individual songs; as When I Was a Young King continues along, some elements are changed a bit from song to song but otherwise maintain a consistency where the whole is better than the sum of its parts.