Kaki King

Junior (Rounder)

Given her smoky, Suzanne Vega-esque vocals leading into the Belly-like burst that kicks off Kaki King’s fifth LP, Junior, the six-string acrobat has traversed many a musical lifetime since debuting as a young twentysomething virtuoso crafting instrumental discs. Same goes for “Spit It Back in My Mouth,” featuring the still-young Atlantan’s candy-coated, multitracked singing as tied altogether by production medium Malcolm Burn. Finding her voice keeps King coming back sharper, more song and sound savvy, a commercially androgynous rockist back-and-forthing between guitar enchantment (“Everything Has an End, Even Sadness”) and pop epics (five-minute album centerpiece “Falling Day”). Picking means grinning and eventually big atmospherics herein for Junior (“My Nerves That Committed Suicide”), the two not at all mutually exclusive (“Hallucinations From My Poisonous German Streets”), but vocal bashers rule the day (“Death Head”). Plaintive closer “Sunnyside” lights Junior‘s heartbreaking highlight, ode to a girl King once lost. Our gain. (Sunday, 3:40pm, Orange stage)

***.5

This article appears in November 5 • 2010.

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San Francisco native Raoul Hernandez crossed the border into Texas on July 2, 1992, and began writing about music for the Chronicle that fall, debuting with an album review of Keith Richards’ Main Offender. By virtue of local show previews – first “Recommendeds,” now calendar picks – his writing’s appeared in almost every issue since 1993.