Pitchfork

The concept album is dangerous territory to tread, but apparently the Kingdom didn't get that memo. On the band's debut EP, Unitas, Kingdom singer/songwriter Charles Westmoreland fictionalized the life and NFL career of the legendary Johnny Unitas, recasting the crew-cutted Baltimore Colts QB as some sort of celestial body throwing touchdown passes across the cosmos. No, seriously.

Now, on the band's debut full-length, Westmoreland turns to narrating a heroic race in which "the Kingdom racer" pilots motorcycles, hydrofoils, airplanes, and even snowmobiles. To be fair, the record's conceit is hardly that transparent. Instead, Westmoreland simply weaves abundant vehicular imagery in with lyrics about pregnancy and hospitals, mountains and lakes, and a recurring color motif. But revisiting these images doesn't result in interesting associations between songs or a greater sense of coherence. Speeding by at a scant 25 minutes with three of the album's 11 tracks recycling the same melody, K1 lacks much substance-- even if a number of these songs are incredibly catchy.

Songs like "Motorcading" and "All I See Is the Sun" burst with a concise energy, as if, like the racers Westmoreland sings about, they are trying to speed their way to the finish line. The band itself is tight enough to pull off the trick, exemplified in the hyperactive bounce of its rhythm section and the ridiculously nimble guitar solo that erupts in the middle of "Die All Over Me". But even when the music succeeds, Westmoreland's grating vocals threaten to kill the mood. As with his over-reaching concept, Westmoreland strains to sing in a pinched and affected timbre that reaches for soaring and expressive heights. On the cheeseball piano ballad, "Polaris", Westmoreland's nasal whine dances over chords, singing lines like, "Your leather snowmobile jacket fits like a dream." On "Pilot", the album's a cappella closer, he attempts to use his distinctive voice to his advantage, but it hardly ends the album on a high note. In echoing, multi-part harmony, Westmoreland concludes the album-long race, declaring, "I'll be walking down the concourse with my helmet stained with stars."

In the end, the poor decisions that plague K1 are all the more frustrating because of the potential the band clearly possesses. "Higher", which is augmented with some sweeping string flourishes, shows the band to be more than capable of writing succinct, irrepressible pop music. And the fragmentary "Motorcading", with its crushing drums and spindly synth riff, evidences that the Kingdom can inventively tinker with the mechanics of pop, as well. But even the most buoyant music can't keep Westmoreland's leaden concept from sinking.