Kaki King

Dreaming of Revenge (Velour)

Whether plumbing the instrumentalism of her first two discs or moderately vocal – 2006 breakthrough … Until We Felt Red – Kaki King’s complex emotional tangle breathes through the pores of her guitar. On the 28-year-old prodigy’s fourth LP, the mostly instrumental Dreaming of Revenge, musical and vocal virtuosity, songwriting, and King’s ever-expanding sonic palette of feminine pop and pang rally on “Pull Me out Alive.” That instrumental cityscape “Montreal,” a monorail of sightless buoyancy, follows it up only enhances this dish best served chilled. Sung or not, Revenge intimates the same: diary entries both intimate and extroverted. Opener “Bone Chaos in the Castle” thumbs outer guitar harmonies, while the plaintive appeal of “Life Being What It Is” bobs as jaunty as the wordless “Sad American” weaves. Ideas thin at the end (“Can Anyone Who Has Heard This Music Really Be a Bad Person?”), but when blithe builds to a six-string gallop on stilling closer “2 O’Clock,” Revenge kills. (Thursday, March 13, 18th Floor @ Hilton Garden, 10:50pm.)

***.5

This article appears in March 14 • 2008.

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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.