King Creosote

Kenny Anderson scoffs at your idea of prolific. Counting over 40 releases over his career as King Creosote, the Scottish singer-songwriter has collected some of his favourite tracks to create Thrawn, a greatest hits compilation of sorts that puts the breadth of his musical output on display. The King Creosote output level is quite obviously the result of Anderson's musical spirit of adventure. A genre-defying artist at heart, Thrawn acts as a catalogue as he works his way through a buffet of styles. The swaying organ in "Bootprints" gives away jarringly to bass-driven dance number "You've Got No Clue Do You," which in turn bleeds into the playful folk rhythms of "King Bubbles in Sand." Were this an individual release it would seem schizophrenic, but its status as a retrospective makes it akin to a career slideshow, a kind of sonic travelogue. Anderson soars on "The Vice-like Gist of It," a light opera on the moors, devastating and murky. He pulls out of a melancholic dive as often as he falls into one, aggressively trying to remain upbeat when his dirges prove more interesting.