King Krule - You Heat Me Up, You Cool Me Down
XL Recordings
A live album has the potential to solidify the notion that an artist is one of a kind/generation/million. Throughout the years all the greats have captured specific portions of their career through recordings of live performances. Led Zeppelin at the Royal Albert Hall, Radiohead at the Astoria, Portishead at the Roseland Ballroom in New York City, Pulp at Glastonbury '95 and the list goes on. They serve as changing of the guard moments, passing’s of the torch as to the quality of said performances and the times.
You Heat Me Up... is a comprehensive collection of King Krule's work to date - '6 Feet Beneath the Moon', 'The Ooz' and 'Man Alive!' all inclusive - in the live setting. It's also the first time that fan favourite 'Rock Bottom' has appeared on streaming services. 2018's 'Live on the Moon' snapshots a specific place and time in The Ooz, whereas You Heat Me Up succinctly covers their first three albums, or more precisely the first decade of King Krule.
Beautifully paced, arranged and recorded You Heat Me Up features slightly altered versions - in energy, vision, scope - of material in comparison with their studio counterparts. Every great act transforms their set to suit the energy of a live audience, and King Krule are no different. It takes a special act to pull off the transition to the live realm as well as this however. The live band, consisting of Ignacio Salvadores on saxophone, James Wilson on bass, Jack Towell on guitar, Jamie Isaac on keys, the one and only George Bass on drums and, of course, Archy Marshall on frontman duties, place the material upon the proverbial next plateau. Emotional residue seeps sullenly from the core of its embers, although it slowly resonates with ambiguous, abstract hope - similar to the way Radiohead's material has that special dourness tinged with silver linings.
Offering a glimpse into a tour that never was - as stated on King Krule's website - You Heat Me Up more then makes up for the inability to finish the European tour. In fact it couldn't have worked out any better.
