Reviews

It’s easy to fall into the trap of judging King Creosote (or Kenny Anderson as he’s known to his friends) as just another dour middle-of-the-road act, due to him hailing from - and being from the same neck of the woods as - the rather unbearably bland KT Tunstall.

But if there’s one thing this boy can do, it is write a cracking tune, and live, songs such as Vice Like Gist Of It manage to come across with an almost unbearable sweetness, whilst at the same time being filled with a wry wit and charm. A bit like him really.

Despite having a new album out, it’s the tunes from his previous effort, KC Rules OK, which elicit the loudest cheers, perhaps because this in many people’s eyes is seen as his tour de force.

Live, 678 doesn’t so much sound like a sad acceptance of mediocrity, but rather a rousing call to arms - a convincing conviction that you may not be the pick of the bunch, but somehow you’ll get by.

By the time, both he and his band swing themselves on stage to launch into a fantastically rabble rousing chorus of his brother Gordon’s Happy, you can’t help but being swept along on the tide and before you know it you’re bellowing “I’M HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY!” along with them.

One of the wonderful things about King Creosote is that his music takes you by the hand and drags you onto an emotional rollercoaster alongside him, leaving you grinning and breathless by the end. Which certainly makes him rule in my eyes. OK?