The Custom Kings Extend An Invitation to Hop Aboard and Get Lost At Sea

After three well-received EP’s, Melbourne’s Custom Kings release their debut album, ‘At Sea,’ featuring the timeless single, ‘Up Late.’

Stick it in and press play. Get blown away by Triple J favourite, ‘Up Late.’ Let the album flow onwards. Allow the tears to roll down your face with Triple J favourite, ‘Rose Pickles.’ Continue the flow. Smile along to Triple J favourite, ‘Cheri.’ This is ‘At Sea,’ the debut album by the Custom Kings…the band that has been picked up and carried by JJJ with full force, remaining on high rotation for so long that they’ve been complaining of motion sickness, and it’s all with due reason.

Birthed in the ports of Melbourne, the members of the Custom Kings worked together, overseeing the coming and going of packages, legal and otherwise in customs. You could listen to this album and call it a concept album…but really, you’re looking at a concept band. A band that wrote their music on the ports, singing songs about being lost at sea, being grounded on the shore, about journeys afar…they are the self-proclaimed kings of customs and they live up to it on this album encompassing the full range of the emotional spectra. It jumps from smiles to frowns, all the while retaining a gorgeous, unique sound that makes the kings what they are – a fresh, fun-loving five-piece that states the moon’s gravitational pull as a musical influence.

The almost angelic voice of Nick Vorrath (stage name: the Fence) sits unusually comfortable amongst lyrics like, ‘she’s rough around the edges, but she gets it done’ and ‘[she] sleeps on my floorboards, and smokes up all my deals.’ It’s this dichotomy between the innocent and the raw that add that extra bit of finish to an already well-rounded album and creates the identity that makes up the Custom Kings.

The album kicks off with a contender for one of the songs of the year, the highly-strung, gleeful ‘Up Late,’ an up-tempo, hip-hop inspired classic that could very nearly have out shadowed the entire album if it weren’t for the class of the rest of the pieces of the ‘At Sea’ puzzle. Songs like the flowing ocean ditty, ‘Crazy Drunk’ and the ska track ‘No Lookin Back’ carry on the album before the brilliant ‘Rose Pickles.’ ‘Rose Pickles’ is one of the album’s best. It’s a musical love letter, hitting a low-tempo sweetness unmatched on the rest of the album with lyrics shamelessly tugging the heart strings like “it’s your voice that cries out to me in my dreams” and “when I close my eyes, it’s still you that I see.”

The album is dragged back up to speed with the dub-reggae feel of ‘Ocean,’ before the laid-back fan-favourite, ‘Cheri.’ A few tracks onwards and the country and honky tonk influenced ‘Used to Be’ and ‘Hot Shot Boogie’ add a further couple of highlights to the album. In fact, the album is so full of superb songs that it’s hard to actually pinpoint what the highlights are. With the album closing off with two more great tracks in the form of ‘Rough Around the Edges’ and the superb finishing track, ‘Mind At Sea,’ you come to the realization that an album with no lowlights can have no highlights. It’s at a constant level of goodness through all 14 tracks that cements ‘At Sea’ as one the great Australian folk releases of 2007.

This is an album crossing a thousand genres, from reggae to honky tonk, from hip hop to folk and back again, through dub, around rock and sidling through country…yet, somehow, it maintains a steady ebb and flow amongst its distinct originality. It’s a fantastic album from start to finish that can hardly be faulted. Do your ears a favour and pick up this album…it’s full of flowing, feel good, folky vibes that we haven’t seen since early Beautiful Girls and Cat Empire. The Custom Kings are already radio favourites. In no time we’ll see them on every festival bill in the country. Then who knows what ranges they’ll cross. Yes, maybe it’s a little over-the-top to call them the next big thing. But after the release of this album, by all rights they should be.