Archy Marshall, better known by his stage name King Krule has been making music since he was a kid. After going through a few stage names King Krule was the one that stuck when after he released an EP entitled King Krule‰’s EP in 2011. King Krule has been known to mix genres from indie-rock to jazz fusion to hip hop to something called dark wave, and his latest album is no exception.

While officially under the alternative umbrella according to apple music, King Krule‰’s latest record entitled The OOZ, has traces of all of the aforementioned genres and more. The LP has 19 tracks which truly take you through a sonic journey. After listening to this record a few times I realized that I really like and pay attention to the songs at the start of the album and the songs at the end. I find myself tuning out the middle, but still enjoying it, this may be intentional as Marshall lets his vocals take the backseat to the music during some of the songs in the middle.

“Biscuit Town‰” is the first song on the record, it seems to reference a neighborhood in London that was known by the same moniker since there were a lot of biscuit factories, Marshall is from London. King Krule mumbles lyrics over a beat with remnants of other genres exposing new listeners to his unique style.

“The Locomotive‰” creates a sense of anxiety switching between soft sounds building up to the music increasing volume and King Krule almost screaming on the track until he actually starts to scream before singing “we all have our evils‰” close to the end of the song. The lyrics are about dark emotion, King Krule sings about feeling lonely and about isolation. The build up to louder singing and screaming allows the listener to feel some of the emotion that Marshall feels and it shows how negative thoughts and feelings like this can seem.

Released on September 17, “Dum Surfer‰” was the second single that King Krule put out while promoting this album. It is one of the more upbeat songs, but still shares the darkness that the rest of the record has. The song depicts a night at a club or a bar where the speaker gets wasted, it describes puking and getting into a cab after, then a car crash. The music video for the song starts out showing King Krule in a stretcher looking like he would at the end of what this song describes, then it cuts to the band playing and King Krule singing. The colors and angles in the video are very reminiscent of the 90s or at least a time in the past.

“The OOZ‰” shares the same name as the record as a whole, it goes back to when King Krule was known as Zoo Kid. “‰The ooz‰’ for me represents … your sweat, your nails, the sleep that comes out of your eyes, your dead skin. All of those creations that you have to refine‰” King Krule said of the album name. The song starts out with a woman mumbling and King Krule‰’s voice in the background asking “Is anybody out there?‰” The song in its repetition combined with its slow pace makes the listener feel just as lost as the singer and the woman from the beginning of the song.

“Midnight 01 (Deep Sea Diver)‰” starts out with slow guitar strumming and what sounds like a vinyl record slowing down and King Krule‰’s voice weavings its way in. Rain plays in the background while he sings “Why‰’d you leave me? Because of my depression?‰” The pace of the music is not consistent throughout the song and it is not consistent with his voice, but just like many of the other songs on this record it allows us to feel what Marshall sings about just from the way he sings it and how the music is produced to go along with it.

Throughout the record King Krule sings about emotions and that many of us can relate to, but that we do not hear a lot of in recent music. The OOZ has received praise from many in the music community and for good reason, it is so unique and redefines what it means to make “alternative‰” music. King Krule is currently on tour and will be in DC on October 21.