Self-proclaimed “hellions performing a balancing act between danceable pop and experimental electro,” the Chattanooga, Tenn. band has concocted an album that sure isn’t the quiet type who meekly sits at the dark corner of the room waiting to be noticed. In fact, what the self-titled record seems to be striving for is to be the life of the party.

Its peculiar mash-up of genres will have the listener questioning, “Do I want to violently dance or close my eyes and calmly sway to the music?” Although many bands have already done and are still doing genre mash-ups to create uniquely beautiful music – the supergroup the Sound of Animals Fighting, for instance – what Prophets & Kings has to offer still manages to sound somewhat new and fresh.

Listening to the album is like taking a journey into a galactic, enchanted forest. To start with, the six minute first track “Bear Milk” seduces the listener with its hypnotic rhythm and beats with a punch of screaming vocals at the very end. Around the middle of the journey is “First Taste,” a danceable track worthy of the kind of sweat-inducing moves that liberate one from acceptable social etiquettes of normality. A few minutes more of this and the trip ends with “Die to Rest,” a fittingly more subdued but nonetheless melodic coda that concludes the experimental album.

Although the band’s latest effort isn’t perfect (the song “A Freshiest” for instance isn’t particularly exceptional with its repetitive chanting), Prophets & Kings will surely find its way into the hearts of indie music lovers who are always on the lookout for the next potential best thing.

Grade: B+



Prophets & Kings is currently available.