Kingdom Unitas

Everyone loves a concept album, right? Of course you do. But what about concept EPs? Are they fashionable right now? Portland's latest export The Kingdom evidently think so and although I don't really follow their chosen concept - legendary quarterback Johnny Unitas (thank you press release) playing football with the sun, people covered in horse's blood, ice cream, etc. - who am I to argue?

As a good friend once told me - he was removing a rather vast collage of Salvador Dali prints from his wall at the time - there's a fine line between surrealism and pretentiousness. With its spoken word introductions to all four 'proper' tracks, Unitas arguably crosses this. I appreciate the narrative role of these intros and everything but when I hit random on my mp3 player the last thing I want to hear is "Delta, 49 yard line, I am constellation..." If I want to hear irrelevant mutterings in between my songs I download a podcast or listen to the radio.

Disturbing themes and questionable commentaries aside, Unitas shows that The Kingdom have all the requisite ingredients for success (or at the very least, critical acclaim) in the fickle world of indie-rock. The guitars are jangly, the harmonies exquisite, the keyboard sounds comfortingly cheap, and the lyrics refreshingly different. On A Bended Razor Shape they even get a little bit weird: "I'll shave my kneecaps down / right through the bone ... I'll mix with sugar and ice for everybody". What that means is anyone's guess, but I'll take it over Speed Of Sound any day.

The Arena Rock site tells me the band's debut full length is set for release in early 2006, which I guess means anytime soon. Provided it's not a self-indulgent seventy-minute monologue, it'll probably be worthy of your attention. In the meantime, you could do a hell of a lot worse than this.