Review Summary: The Duke and The King deliver a poetic, sweet, and haunting debut album with Nothing Gold Can Stay
When The Duke and the King recorded their debut record, it was just two friends making music in a cabin in Bearsville, NY, not far from the legendary Woodstock. Simone Felice, an up and coming voice in the underground music and literary world, most famous for his work (drummer, occasional vocalist and songwriter) with The Felice Brothers, had decided to take some time off from touring with his brothers. So for about four months, in the winter of 2008 - 09, Felice and longtime friend, collaborator, and producer Robert "Chicken" Burke made one of 2009's most heartfelt, endearing records.
Nothing Gold Can Stay is a very different record than anything the Felice Brothers have done. The Felice Brothers, while poetic and brilliant, are ultimately a raucous, roots-rock band, who's records are quite good, but who's production value falls a bit short. Nothing Gold Can Stay is immaculately produced, without losing that certain organic quality that Americana music offers. The tracks on this record are often acoustic ballads with the addition of sleek keyboards, drums, and electronic tinges here and there, with beautiful vocalization throughout. In addition to that, Simone Felice's aesthetic for songwriting is really brilliant. His poetry is literal, soulful and incredibly honest.
The album as a whole is well paced, but there are certainly some tracks that can be considered filler. The album opens with "If You Ever Get Famous," a simple, well crafted track about the dangers of becoming famous, and staying true to where you come from. This is probably the most well known, radio friendly track on the record. Felice sings "If you ever get famous, I'll say a prayer for your heart / and keep your eyes open wide and beware of the sharks / 'cause they come out in the dark." Felice said he wrote this track as something of warning to himself in the summer of 2008, when the Brothers were touring America, gaining critical acclaim, and hanging out with a lot of famous people.
The theme of the past, youth, and growing up is major throughout this record. The tracks themselves are mostly sweet, with honey soaked vocals and simple arrangements, but there's certainly an underlying sadness beneath it all, perhaps most notably on "Union Street," a track about growing up in the 80s, when Reagan was president, finding love, and having hope for humanity. But still, according to Simone Felice, there is a sadness in life which cannot get ignored, with lines such as "Meet me there in the parking lot / in that part of town Jesus forgot / and bring those pills you stole from your mom / and we'll be here, we'll be here / then we'll gone, long gone."
Most of the tracks were written by Felice, so he holds most of the vocal duties, while Robert Burke has a few tracks here and there. "Still Remember Love," written by both Felice and Burke, and sung by Burke, has a great "old" feel to it, like it was written and produced in the '70s, not 2009. But despite this, there are definitely songs that could have been omitted, the only problem being that the album is already short, so they were needed to fill the allotted spaces. For example "Lose My Self," one of Felice's tracks, has some great instrumentation work on it, but overall it's rather monotonous and redundant, with Felice repeating the line "It makes me wanna lose my self," again and again. "Summer Morning Rain" is another. Although it's a good song, it feels forgettable to me.
Some highlights for me are "One More American Song," the last track on the record. This, in addition to Burke's "I've Been Bad," is the most stripped down track on Nothing Gold Can Stay. The musicality is, again, very simple, but Felice's lyrics resonate incredible beautifully, as he sings about the empty sadness of war, love, youth. He sings about a boy he knew when he was young, who'd been in the army: "If you see him now / he pushes a shopping cart in the parking lot / you call him he don't hear a thing / call him John the Priest, John the king of bottle tops / priest or pawn, his war is still on / it's just one more American song." It's verses like that which make the album memorable.
Another is "Water Spider," a forgotten Felice Brothers track dug up and reworked for the album. The themes here are again fame, religion, etc. Felice sings "Jesus walked on water / but so did Marvin Gaye." So I suppose there's humor here as well as sadness. He also sings about the past, how things aren't the same as they used to be, with the refrain "They don't make them like you no more."
If it weren't for a couple of tracks, the ones I mentioned, I would give this album a solid 4, instead of 3.5. That said, the album is really good, and it's surprising to me no one has written a review for it yet. Also, The Duke and the King's next record is due for release in September, with the addition of Nowell Haskins and Simi Stone, The Duke and The King's touring band, contributing to the record. Also, on a more personal note, I've seen them live and they just destroy. So if you get this album and like it, try and see them live. A good example of their live performance would be their appearance on Jules Holland, as well as their performance live at Paste Magazine, both of which you can find on Youtube.
So in conclusion, I really recommend checking this out. They've had nothing but good reviews, and if that's the way it has to be, so be it, because they deserve it.
