DUG PINNICK – Emotional Animal

Joy can be found in the most unlikely places. After confusing many fans with his solo Poundhound releases that even Doug himself admits not many listeners understood, Mr. Pinnick releases a solo album under his own name and manages to make old King’s X fans weep with joy.

For the first couple of spins this one feels like an unplugged demo of King’s X material. For those of you not in the know, King’s X is criminally unknown among the Hard Rock-loving masses, but for those in the know they are much loved and a cherished rare treasure … and now their lead singer has released an album full of material that he cooked up in his basement, accompanied with an intriguing note – “I just write for King’s X.” Indeed most of the songs on offer here reek of King’s X, and the rest are clearly experimental bits and pieces.

The production is so clear that you can hear the drums vibrate on the opening track “Crashing,” which backs a mighty King’s X groove.

“Beautiful” has an emotional message to ones sub-conscience, and sounds like a distant cousin to “We Are Finding Who Were Are” from Faith Hope Love.

“Change,” which starts with a softly spoken vocals, introduces the Bluesy feel that gets visited again later on. This one takes you back to “Summerland.” Tone-wise, this mixes Hendrix with gospel and spices it up with a psychedelic groove.

It’s not all praises though. “Are You Gonna Come” annoyingly plays by stretching words and notes. “Noon” starts with a haunting guitar and slowly tiptoes along, making a kind of drowsy lullaby atmosphere. The long jam at the end could have been cut a bit shorter to make the song a bit tighter. “Wrong,” the a cappella song, on the other hand, should and could have been a lot longer than one minute.

“Equal Rights” continues with the Bluesy feel, and you can almost picture the band jamming on someone’s front porch down on the bayou. The vocal delivery on this one would go perfectly together with Lenny Kravitz. Dug should make a duet with Lenny to get some of that long overdue exposure to his and King’s X music.

The drums, which are played by Jerry’s son Joy Gaskill, are given lots of room to shine. “Hey Would You Know” starts with a drum solo and “Zepp,” in turn, ends with a drum solo.

“I Haven’t Been Here Before” has a trippy psychedelic feel and a melody that sounds disturbingly familiar. Name that tune, dammit!

“Freak The Funk Out” does just that, and continues with the experiments introducing a human trumpet. The jam session within is something that could be found on a b-side of a Prince single.

“Mr. Hateyourself” ends the album, starting with a Punky sound and continues on with the same spirit, lasting only mere two minutes.

If you’re familiar with King’s X, but are turned off by Doug’s previous solo efforts, then you should definitely forgive the man and dive into this one. It touches upon the long lost sound of the first three King’s X albums throwing in Dogman for good measure plus you get a few jams and experiments as a bonus. If you’re unfamiliar with Doug (or Dug) then all you need to know is that this is full of heavy bass, soulful vocals, beautiful harmonies, and massive grooves all lovingly done in a home baked style. Weepingly good.