Search - Peter Blegvad :: King Strut & Other Stories

The world's most underrated song writer?

Robert Moore | Chicago, IL USA | 01/28/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is an absolutely stunning album, but for some reason Peter Blegvad remains one of the most unknown great performers in the world. For sometime now he has been one of our most able, original, and witty songwriters, and yet even knowledgeable fans will not even recognize his name. While Blegvad has produced a number of first rate collections of songs, KING STRUT AND OTHER STORIES, first released in 1990, remains his finest achievement. Nearly every song on the album is a stunner, from the opening and title track, "King Strut," all the way to its raw, "plugged" reprise at the end of the disc, Blegvad churns out one amazingly original song after another. There are no weak cuts on this disc. Among my favorites are "Not Weak Enough," which appeared originally on the album DOWNTIME, but which was recorded in a greatly simplified but improved version here, "Gold," "Stranger to Myself," and "Meantime," which unpeels like an onion the various uses to which that word can be put. I think anyone enjoying good songwriting, from Elliot Smith to T-Bone Burnett to Richard Thompson, will find this to be a spectacular addition to their music library. This album is a classic that has yet to be recognized as such.Edit: I noticed that somehow my review got posted to WHATEVER instead of KING STRUT. The song list appears to be the same, but the original title or the correct title was KING STRUT AND OTHER SONGS."

Gold unearthed

Russell Richardson | NYNYUSA | 03/04/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"King StrutThose of you who were first introduced to Peter Blegvad via the recent 'Choices Under Pressure' (or Blegvad-lite, as it has been called) will recognise three tracks on this 1990 reissue. The album has been long unavailable, and was hard enough to find even for 12 years. Hence its 'legendary' status. 'King Strut' marked an important change of direction for Blegvad - moving away from his wonderful but wilfully obscure art-rock days (who said 'avant-pop'?) and into more direct, and perhaps more sincere territory.
King Strut mixes wry stories (the subtitle is 'and other stories') with either sharp, spare rock arrangements, or almost wistful acoustic guitar. At times, and surprisingly effectively, tinges of folk and country poke through. Melody comes to the fore, and several of the songs achieve an effortless delicacy - 'Swim' finds a chord progression that remarkably no-one found before (like 'inventing' the old Am-G-F riff) and 'Shirt and Comb' feels like an authentic Irish ballad.
Blegvad aficionados will already know four of these songs, all of which are leaner and meaner here.
The album has something of the Andy Partridge experiment 'Naked Shakespeare' (particularly the reprise of the title track) and a lot of 'Downtime', which makes an excellent companion piece.(make sure you get the ESD re-release with three extra, excellent tracks - 'Actual Frenzy'; 'Say No Now'; and 'Green Boy')
There are no 'extra tracks' or enhancements here, even the liner notes are a sober reprint, but at over 50 minutes, the CD is what it is, a sincere, simple 'made available' of a superb, barely known pop record."

Classic!!

freeq27870 | North Carolina | 04/27/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is the one album that first introduced me to the genius that is Blegvad! Being an XTC fan, what drew me to this release, of course, was the involvement of Andy Partridge. If you don't mind spending the extra dough to get this new .... or you happen across it in a used music store somewhere .... do yourself a favor and GRAB THIS ONE!!!!! You will NOT be disappointed, trust me."