Smalltown Stardust

When he recorded the 2018 album The Other, King Tuffs Kyle Thomas had grown weary of the power pop-meets-punk sound of the band and the rock & roll party guy persona he had crafted to go along with it. Instead he started making music that was more introspective and darkly psychedelic. 2023s Smalltown Stardust moves even further away from the King Tuff formula in many important ways. Thomas swears off his sneering vocal style in favor of a heartfelt croon, stashes his guitar away for the most part, and created the album in tandem with housemate Sasami Ashworth. She has a hand in the songwriting and production as well as adding many of the keyboards and strings that add color to the songs. The pair cook up a sound thats warm and comforting enough to perfectly capture the sense of nostalgia that imbues the lyrics and melodies. Thomas wrote the songs while thinking back to his days growing up, figuring things out, and making music with friends in Vermont and the tenderness that comes through in his words and voice is immense. Maybe not what anyone might expect from Thomas in this guise, but he proves just as good at getting down to some serious emotions as he does rocking out. Ashworths help is invaluable; her backing vocals are one click past beautiful, the instrumentation she adds gives the record a wide-screen beauty, and having her as a foil seems to have opened Thomas up to being completely vulnerable and free. The combination of talents works almost like a superpower that unlocks the best from each musician. While the album does have a few tracks with a little bit of the rock & roll spark one might associate with King Tuff -- both "Portrait of God" and "Rock River" bounce along nicely and feature guitars more heavily -- where the album really hits home on the ballads, Songs like "How I Love" or "Pebbles in a Stream" are like beacons from a lonely heart, "Love Letters to Plants" conjures up the warped sweetness of late 60s Beach Boys, the baroque pop-leaning "Always Find Me" is almost painfully pretty, and "Tell Me" utilizes the very familiar Fleetwood Mac trope but manages to escape scorn by being wonderfully light and melodic. Thomas also dips into fairly traditional singer/songwriter territory on the story song "The Bandits of Blue Sky," but keeps it weird and wonderful with some oddball bass sounds, swooping synth strings, and Ashworths rich vocal harmonies. Basically, this new direction for King Tuff is a perfect left turn, pulled off with a maximum amount of feeling and imagination. Aided by Ashworths sure hand, the new leaf Thomas turns over here means that Smalltown Stardust is just as good a mellow, meaningful King Tuff album as Was Dead is a rollicking, down and dirty rock record. Which is to say, really, really good indeed, ~ Tim Sendra