Kingdon Chapple-Wilson, aka Kings, struck it big with his single Don't Worry 'Bout It.
Kingdon Chapple-Wilson, aka Kings, struck it big with his single Don't Worry 'Bout It.
The good news for fans of Don't Worry 'Bout It, the out-of-nowhere hit that landed Kings on the musical map, is there's plenty more where that came from.
From the drum and bass-fired banger Paradise, to the joyously upbeat We'll Never Know, Chapter One, Kings' debut album, proves he's noone-hit wonder.
Add the hilariously effective porno trumpets of HYLMN and the low-key post-club antics of All Night Long, and Kings shows he's capable of wearing many different hats.
is that some of those hats don't fit as well as others.
No Kiwi musician can get away with Get Money's cliched "get money money money" chorus, and it's the same with the Skrillex-aping antics of Kush Rolled X Cup Filled.
They're songs Kings seems to have included to land back on George FM playlists and Rhythm & Vines festival line-ups.
But Kingdon Chapple-Wilson is a solo father-of-one from Northcote who accidentally struck it big thanks to a low-key summer anthem and video shot on his iPhone.
There's much more to him than those songs suggest.
Thankfully, once you get past them,
Chapter One
gets better as it goes on - and that's because we get a little closer to finding out who Kings really is.
Try In the Sun, a beautifully simple ballad that sounds like it was conceived during a moment of clarity while watching the sun rise after an all-night party.
Or Domino, where Kings glances over his shoulder and heads back to a relationship during happier times.
"Girl / Do you remember / Before Tinder / I used to keep you warm all winter?" he asks to a ghost shimmering in his past.
But the album's stand-out moment is Damage, Kings' answer to Lorde's Royals, that sounds like he's penning a letter to himself warning of future excess.
"Shopping sprees in Paris / It helps to hide the damage / It can never heal the damage / I hope one day I understand it," he sings towards the chorus: "F*** my new shit / I miss my old shit."
