ALBUM REVIEW: Opus Kink - The Sweet Goodbye

Combining modern music styles with vintage fashions, Opus Kink’s newest album ‘The Sweet Goodbye’ presents a somewhat gothic groove spun through varying genres of Punk, Jazz, Indie and even Ska. A tasteful and cutting-edge sonic experience is offered, where instruments of the brass family conjoin with drums both electronic and raw, gritty guitars, suave bass notes and husky vocals that dive in and out of a beautiful insanity. 

Photo credit: Jacob Ray

Opening with the track ‘Come Over, Do Me Wrong’ we are immediately immersed into Opus Kink’s wall of sound, entrapped by the hypnotising melodies of Jack Banjo Courtney’s trumpet and Jed Morgan’s saxophone that rhythmically swim throughout the track. Meanwhile Angus Rogers’ vocals possess the perfect amount of authority through the well-executed angst of his chords, enabling this almost ghoulish seduction solidified by the track's gorgeously haunting harmonies. 

Speaking of Rogers’ vocals, this is something that shines throughout the record, regardless of how captivating the instrumentals are. The way he adapts his voice to suit certain themes or to alter his presence is masterful, where he can be heard whispering in the track ‘Will It Come For You?’ crafting this enchanting darkness that allures you to the soft spoken lyrics: “Left my baby in the still of the night / Had to tell her that I’d done saw the light / The truth’s worse / Still the words will not come”. In the same track Rogers can be heard delivering a groan, meanwhile in the track ‘I Have To Shine My Sunday Shoes’, he ragingly delivers the line “I’m walking to the cornershop" that spits with fury. To say the vocals on ‘The Sweet Goodbye’ are dynamic would be an understatement!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvFirvglSfM&list=RDLvFirvglSfM&start_radio=1

What ties the genre bending experience together to make this an album is Opus Kink’s magnificent use of brass instruments. Where in tracks like the titular ‘The Sweet Goodbye’ they compliment the existential severe nature of the track, they also act as a more airy, tranquil element where in ‘Peckham Nocturne’ we float up into Jazz heaven.

Closing the album is ‘Oh, Irony’ where synths of melancholia are woven in between a more delicate pitter-patter of soft trumpets and saxophones. Despite being a slower track in comparison to its predecessors, it is the perfect final showdown for ‘The Sweet Goodbye’, encapsulating the album’s nature of zero inhibitions to its sound. We can say there are some influences from older acts like Madness, or newer bands like She Wants Revenge, however it is undeniable that there truly is no other like Opus Kink.