Saturday Knights, The - Mingle (Album)
The Saturday Knights are a relatively new and extremely awesome hip-pop group from grunge capital Seattle. Their influences range from the Beastie Boys to 60s soul to rock to rap and back again. Their sound is equally as hard to pin down, and that is definitely part of their appeal.
A friend recommended this album to me a few weeks ago, but I couldn't find it online and was planning on borrowing it from him. They are fairly unknown outside of Seattle, but I would contend that that may change soon. Either from word-of-mouth – like in my case – or from increased press and more touring, they will be big. Or, uh... bigger. They are eminently listenable, with a sound that spans genres. From horn-driven funk tracks to singalong choruses to crunchy electro guitar numbers to southern-rock ballads, The Saturday Knights' Mingle is an album that has something for everyone.
Oh, and they do it good. They do it real good.
Opener 45 is a bouncy, premium quality hip hop song set to a pumpin' beat and a smooth blues organ. Count It Off features The Muscle Shoals Horns, so you know that shit is going off. Dog Track is an anthemic, Springsteen-ish vocoder-laden hit. Any song that has falsetto and a 'da dada dadaaa' chorus while managing to sound like a Killers and Lupe Fiasco mash-up is a song that cannot be anything but amazing. Foreign Affair sounds like Girl Talk, which is weird. I know. Just trust me on this one. I suppose that is a testament to The Saturday Knights mastery of about 15 different styles of music.
Mutt sounds like Elephant-era White Stripes with a side order of Iggy Pop. Motorin' is a thumping hip-hop track that descends into a repetitive rock chorus and then rises back into a ba ba bababa humming wonderland. Patches is a more laid back number, and brings together The Muscle Shoals Horns and The Dap Kings, Amy Winehouse's backing band.
The rest of the album is a mix of rap, rock, gospel, soul, and fun. Fun in spades. Definitely worth a look, especially with the Summer party season coming up.
