Album Review: Elle King Tells Tales in 'Shake the Spirit'
In her new album Shake the Spirit, Elle King reveals to listeners the trials and tribulations she’s faced in the past year.
Written by Kris Maxymillian
Photo Courtesy of MTV
Shake the Spirit is Elle King’s powerful first step into starting her brand new life She admits her faults, reveals her hidden battles, releases her pain, and in the midst of it all, she learns from her mistakes. Between her upbeat, bad-girl anthems and the slow, emotional ballads, you fall in love with every song.
King’s second album starts off with the opening track “Talk of the Town.” The title is a reference to King’s ex-husband Andrew Ferguson. Married after less than two weeks of dating, the couple was off and on again through most of their time together. The song is fun and upbeat that one might find themselves singing the backup vocals, while also wondering about what exactly happened between King and Ferguson.
The first half of the album keeps the energy from “Talk of the Town” and reminds us of King’s debut album Love Stuff with her bad girl, rock-n-roll personality. In “Shame,” she sings “Trouble’s what you need / That’s what you’re getting with me.” The entire song is this “I’m a bad*ss” vibe and you can’t help but be sucked in. This part of the album is King’s way of telling her fans she’s back, but with a twist. We start to see this twist as the album plays on, with King becoming more vulnerable and revealing her hidden battles from the past year.
In “Sober,” King sings about how alcohol became her way of ignoring her reality.
The latter half of the album portrays King’s newfound freedom and control, especially in the songs “Good Thing Gone” and “Runaway.” During the album creating process, King refused any pre-recorded instrumentals and instead opted to make every sound from scratch with her band, The Brethren. With “Good Thing Gone,” you start hearing the part of King that is heavily influenced by blues and soul music. The entire song uses a mellow bluesy-country sound that is distinctive from King’s first album.
Photo Courtesy of Elle King
In “Runaway,” King sings of being broken-hearted over a 50s-style melody that has a Patsy Cline feel. The combination of the instrumental builds up in the chorus and King’s acapella is absolutely chilling. The nostalgic sound of the song adds to its allure. It reminds us of a simpler time even though the pain King sings of isn’t as simple. “Good Thing Gone” and “Runaway” both show King’s growth. Her ability to harness the sound of her influences and modernize them is brilliant and should not go unnoticed.
At the album’s close, we have a soulful six-minute gospel-rock anthem that’s reminiscent of Janis Joplin. If the song alone wasn’t enough to impress you, you have to be moved by the sermon in the middle of the song. King says, “I don’t need the love of another person to feel complete / You can't be loved until you see love / And you can’t see love until you've known love / And you can’t know love until you love yourself.” The entire song is a self-love anthem that shows King used the situation she was in to create something wonderful and magnificent.
The last track, “Little Bit of Lovin’” sums up King’s purpose for the album. The track reflects upon the next steps King plans to take in life, while also showing her tremendous growth as an artist. As King mentions in many interviews for the album, she says that since the split from her husband, this album has helped her turn her life around. Since creating the album, she has reconnected with her estranged father and taken steps to address her substance abuse.
All in all, Shake the Spirit showcases King’s journey of finally loving herself and never giving up. It discusses the battles a person goes through and shows us the victories along the way... King has turned her pain into music and embraced the fact that the past has happened and all she can do now is move on.