Our last review was a little rough huh? Admittedly, I had my Mr. Crabby-Pants t-shirt on which isn’t to say that I wrote anything untrue or unfair but ANYWAY, rest-assured that this review will be find me back to my old form. Why? Because it’s about Kick Evrything and I friggin’ adore them and their debut LP This I is Demented and Possibly Deceased.

The album starts off with a slow-burning, soulful yearning, lo-fi, blues muted-strummer that really sets the tone of the whole project. I don’t mean to give the impression that all nine songs sound anything like ‘Dusty’ though, as that couldn’t be farther from the case. Quite the contrary, each song on the album is wonderfully crafted to sound much different from one another while maintaining a central cohesion that’s really quite a pleasant surprise. It shouldn’t work, but it really, really does.

So how are the songs different? Well to point out a few truly stand-out tracks: ‘Tail End’ completely captures the spirit of mid-1990′s Justine Frischmann / Elastica / Brit-Pop. “Why complain to me?” asks lead singer Casey Wei in a bored but at the same time ultra cool voice, “I’ve got dead eyes and they know that you know it’s over.”

‘We Need the Money’ is one of my personal favourites for the fact that it could just as easily been included on Nirvana’s MTV Unplugged album. It’s dark, throaty, acoustic guitar grunge and the real treat here is that Paul Kajander steps up to the mic with a raspy-voiced accompaniment that rolls perfectly with Casey’s lead vocals. I’d definitely like to hear even more of Paul’s voice on the next set of recordings. And is that a clinking bottle on percussion?

The real highlight of the album though, is the six minute, seventeen second supernova that is ‘Clamour, Clamour, Clamour’. I’ll put it right on the table and say that I generally grow tired any song that rolls much over four minutes. I get bored if there isn’t something interesting going on and by the four minute mark, I tend to lose patience altogether. This track, however, is a marvel of phenominal songwriting combined with an extraordinary vocal performance, all topped off with clever and exciting instrumentation. I’m constantly astounded at what innovative and talented musicians can do in their living-rooms with a bare bones setup and this song is a classic example of what’s possible. If you’re not immediately hauled in by the carnival-esque organ that runs the length of the track, you may not have a pulse either (not good). Casey’s vocal inflections alone in the lines “Your feet get lost they don’t wanna be found, stuck inside the city square, good luck in the city my dear.” are as exciting and unexpected as the music that accompanies. I don’t know if this is the best song I’ve heard all year, but it might well be.

I could go on and on about how great this album is (the vocal sweetness of ‘Start Now’, the electro-trash danceparty ‘In Between’, the alternative-weirdness of ‘Cake Won’t Work’…) but I’ll leave it to our readers to find a copy for themselves at Zulu, Red Cat Records, or good ol’ iTunes. This I is Demented and Possibly Deceased is an absolute success of an artistic endeavour and hopefully we’ll hear a lot more from this band in the very near future.