Scottish Albums of the Decade #6: King Creosote - KC Rules OK

Feature by Ally Brown and Ryan Drever.
Published 01 December 2009

Not even King Creosote's mother owns everything in his discography, as it's filled with dozens of rare Fence Collective releases and CD-Rs. But if this isn't the best album he's ever done, may we speak on behalf of the whole world in asking kindly for a copy of the usurper? Recorded in a real studio, unusually for the King, with The Earlies as backing band, KC Rules OK justifies its title in pretty much every song. "It's not that I don't care for you," he beautifully laments in The Vice-Like Gist Of It. "It's just that I'm a cat." Genius.

The King himself looks back on the sessions:

"Well, for me KC Rules OK was basically the first chance I got to do a proper album as King Creosote. I'm very proud of the titles I've put out through Fence but anyone can put their own music out on their own label. Yes, there are a few things you need to do to get there, but you are your own yardstick for quality.

At the time it felt like a bit of daunting step. It was basically me going into a studio with my chords and my words and saying to somebody else: 'What would you do with that?'. But The Earlies were great. They weren't precious and didn't tiptoe around me. [Christian] Madden would go [imitating a lancashire accent] "Raaaght Kenny, we're gonna chook a vibraphone on this" and I was like 'What's a vibraphone?' and then they hauled in this thing that looked like a plumber's mistake. And then, lo and behold, 'Wow! Does this thing really make that noise?'"

 

Comments (4)

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  • You've got the lyrics quoted for Vice Like Gist wrong, you know. There are no references to cats whatsoever...

    Posted by funky_nomad | Wednesday December 2009 @ 12:56

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  • really?! oh shit. that's how I've always heard it! what does he sing then? and, does that mean he's not the genius I thought he was?

    Posted by Ally Brown | Wednesday December 2009 @ 13:11

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  • "It's not that I don't care for you, it's just that I'm unkind".

    There was a couple of examples of the press and media thinking it was "It's just that I'm a c***", which works pretty well, too...

    Posted by funky_nomad | Wednesday December 2009 @ 13:32

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  • I think I prefer "I'm a cat." You think he'd change it?

    Posted by Finbarr Bermingham | Wednesday December 2009 @ 14:45

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