Swedish band SOULKING was formed back in 1999 according to their Facebook page, and are still active from what I can understand. Apparently they have released quite a lot of music over the years, although their self description indicates that their productions haven’t managed to make a marked commercial impact over the years. “Just One of Those Summer Days in the Life of a Swedish King of Soul” is an EP that dates back to 2002, and was reissued by Swedish label White Line Recordings in the fall of 2013.
Dealing with this EP was kind of a new experience for me in terms of style, as this is fairly far removed from the music I normally cover. This is purebred pop music without any foundation in the rock or metal universe whatsoever. And as far as pop music goes, we’re taken on a trip back to the late 1970’s, with your local disco as the perfect setting for this album.
Tied together by cinematic sounds, this six tracks strong EP kicks off with four songs that combines funky bass motifs, compact light toned funky guitar licks and archetypical disco flavored keyboard motifs into four rather different but still purebred funk-based disco numbers, each of them smooth songs with a promise of good times, summer and dance floor activities of the kind that most likely will inspire to other physical activities of a more private and intimate nature later on. Smooth, good time music, although there may well be some parody details to all of them lyrically wise. At least I kind of suspect so, due to the nature of the following two compositions.
The first of these, Rathaus Stimmung, has pub and drinking sounds all over it, German lyrics that sensitive Germans might be offended about, and is basically a parody of a drinking song in the guise of 70’s German mass produced pop music if I understand this one correctly. Concluding track Clean and Easy Love sounds more like a parody of British generic pop music from the same period, and again with lyrics I surmise are of a tongue-in-cheek nature.
Personally I found this EP to be an enjoyable one, and if you’ve got a good sense of humor and have a soft spot for 70’s pop music in general and funky disco in particular this is a production that warrants an inspection.
My rating: 77/100
