Notes on King Charles, The Self Proclaimed King of Oneitis

Bear with me, this is all leading somewhere.

As you all know I'm a little bit of a rambling mad man, I like music and I'm in love with the idea of love. The more impractical the love, the more engaged I find myself. In my opinion the best things in the world are the sad things. Those are the things that inspire the most feeling. As a result the sort of love I seem to subscribe to with greatest frequency is that of the unrequited variety. Unrequited love is the sweetest sorrow. There is such beauty in the pining, and the longing of the one thing that will never be yours. It has its own special sort of romanticism. As all consuming as it tends to be it is also the freest sort of love, because for all your pining and lusting, and wanting and longing, you're still a single pringle primed for mingling.

I tend to call unrequited love the bane of my life but my comrade, Asquith tends to call it oneitis. He is of the opinion that it is perhaps the most fatal disease among young men.

Ps: Oneitis is the term for male obsession.

With my seemingly persistent oneitis infection it is no surprise that the most recent fixture on my playlists is the self proclaimed King of Oneitis, King Charles. On the Huffington post he wrote the following,

"My name is King Charles and last week I released my debut album called LoveBlood. It's full to hilt with songs of love and loss and as 'the king of unrequited love' I don't mind sharing tales of the losses that inspired some of the songs on the album. On LoveBlood, there are three songs dedicated to a lady who I call Mississippi Isabel."

You may read the rest of it here:http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/king-charles/king-charles-love-letter-for-mississippi-isable_b_1509396.html   it isn't for the faint of heart.

His lyrics are full of all that longing and angst that any young man in his twenties or late teens can identify with. Take the song Bam Bam for instance,

Oh God, who is this

but your beautiful daughter

she may be the cure 

but for now she's the torture

Or this bit from Love Lust

Whether a flower in my hand or a gun in my hand,

 I'd give it all up for your hand in my hand.
For the sun on my skin as the morning begins, 

I'd die in the dark just to feel your skin on my skin 

Or this bit from Lady Percy

Every time I see that you're walking by,
I look at you with my eagle eye,
And I know that you're the girl,
That's meant for, that's meant for me.

If you've ever entertained the notion that you might like Mumford and Sons if they were a little livelier, then King Charles is for you. His music is a sort of indie, folk pop that's both quirky and appealing. It's exactly like a windy, cobbly street in Cambridge, even if you do not like it, you will listen in complete bedazzlement and wonder what exactly it is that is wrong with you for not liking it. For there must be something wrong with you if you dislike music so quaint and dare I say it, unique. 

Even though it's only February, I can tell you with full confidence that his album, LoveBlood is one of my top 5 albums of the year. He makes Oneitis cool.

Happy Days,

Afam