REVIEW IN THE OK GAZETTE:
Kali Ra — Electric Living
Louis Fowler July 16th, 2013 Dressing in black and smoking Clove cigarettes may be in my past, but my love of darkly introspective music has stayed, no matter my mood. It’s not unusual to see me smiling while blasting The Cure’s Faith, David Bowie’s Low or, now, Oklahoma City act Kali Ra’s debut, Electric Living.
“Black Leather Demon” is a cranium-pounding opening that recalls a time when Marilyn Manson wasn’t a bloated joke, but the album really kicks things into gear with the second cut, the title track, a song so sweeping and beautiful that it would be on my playlist for traversing a futuristic wasteland of death and darkness, but with tinges of hope on the periphery. “Loaded” is more of the same, but with a distinct Joy Division vibe. The melodic, somewhat jauntier “Photograph” will be on repeat for a long time to come as I think about ex-girlfriends and what I did to make them leave me, while “Discipline” inspires me to just knock off the crying and find a woman to whip the sadness out of me. Win-win, I guess.
Electric Living has moved to the top of my “dark moods” playlist — if not albums of the year — giving me all the conceptual brooding I need at 3 a.m. with none of the black velvet or never-ending cups of crap coffee. --Louis Fowler
Louis Fowler July 16th, 2013 Dressing in black and smoking Clove cigarettes may be in my past, but my love of darkly introspective music has stayed, no matter my mood. It’s not unusual to see me smiling while blasting The Cure’s Faith, David Bowie’s Low or, now, Oklahoma City act Kali Ra’s debut, Electric Living.
“Black Leather Demon” is a cranium-pounding opening that recalls a time when Marilyn Manson wasn’t a bloated joke, but the album really kicks things into gear with the second cut, the title track, a song so sweeping and beautiful that it would be on my playlist for traversing a futuristic wasteland of death and darkness, but with tinges of hope on the periphery. “Loaded” is more of the same, but with a distinct Joy Division vibe. The melodic, somewhat jauntier “Photograph” will be on repeat for a long time to come as I think about ex-girlfriends and what I did to make them leave me, while “Discipline” inspires me to just knock off the crying and find a woman to whip the sadness out of me. Win-win, I guess.
Electric Living has moved to the top of my “dark moods” playlist — if not albums of the year — giving me all the conceptual brooding I need at 3 a.m. with none of the black velvet or never-ending cups of crap coffee. --Louis Fowler
