If Then Not When is eight tracks in 50 minutes, taking up to two songs to reward you with a hook, so if you don’t like the way one song is going, prepare to switch to cruise control. ![]() ![]() The only drawback is the King’s Daughters & Sons formula comes heavy on working out. Heineman cleverly twists it into a kidnapper’s jingle by adding the line ”In the kitchen, whiskey-drunk / I pray to someone else’s god that you’ll keep quiet…”. A tale of botched wedding, exploding whiskey stills and Billy Lyons, a patsy in a small town assault, it features the same eerie acoustics as Isobel Campbell’s Gentle Waves all carousing choruses and delicious seasickness. When both singers come together for the swirling ‘Anniversary’, the atmosphere jumps up ten places. Grimes shows off her range on ‘Arc of the Absentees’ where she impersonates 25 per cent of the Corrs, cooing gently in a Gaelic accent ”Try and recall a time when we all held a steady course / Before we were brightful and indifferent”. “Such a lonely ride in the saddle out of town,” howls Heineman, his hoarse roar propelled by a tortured rock-out. ‘Dead Letter Office’ tells the story behind the band’s name a sludgey hymn to the dirty south that feels like Hope of the States when they still had sackcloth promos. Michael Heineman and Rachel Grimes have all the harmonies their frontiersman music demands, and when the guitar/bass/drums climax in time with them, the results are as sweetly morose as you could hope for. Those sticking around are in for a treat, as If Then Not When reaches the quality you’d expect of a November Chemikal Underground release: wintry, beautiful… basically the Delgados on an iced-over dirt trail. If you haven’t got a thing for bereaved Country and Western acts, or if a six-minute Samaritans’ transcript set to slowcore doesn’t excite you, you are not part of the demographic. Not to be confused with Sons and Daughters - another ex-Chemikal Underground affiliate - KSAD are solemn storytellers, solemn enough that no amount of disco/glam production could make them as marketable as their namesakes. Ten years later and they’ve found one ready formed: King’s Daughters & Sons, a five-piece from Kentucky built from the remains of For Carnation, Shipping News, Rachel’s and Shannon Wright. The last time Chemikal Underground flirted with supergroups it was to allow members of Arab Strap and Mogwai to record a cover of Atomic Kitten’s ‘Whole Again’.
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