''King'' is the second

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

by American

alternative rock Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from Popular culture, mainstre ...

band

Belly Belly may refer to: Anatomy * The abdomen, the part of the body between the pelvis and the thorax; or the stomach ** A beer belly, an overhang of fat above the waist, presumed to be caused by regular beer drinking ** Belly dance * The fleshy, cen ...

, released on February 13, 1995. Although the members had tightened their focus and polished their hook-laden songs, ''King'' and its singles did not meet label expectations in the

grunge Grunge (sometimes referred to as the Seattle sound) is an alternative rock genre and subculture that emerged during the in the American Pacific Northwest state of Washington, particularly in Seattle and nearby towns. Grunge fuses elements of p ...

-friendly atmosphere of 1995, and the band broke up shortly after it was released. The album sold over 350,000 copies. In the two decades since ''King''s release, many (including some critics) have reconsidered the initial lukewarm attitude towards the album and now hold it as an equal to Belly's highly regarded debut ''

Star A star is an astronomical object comprising a luminous spheroid of plasma (physics), plasma held together by its gravity. The List of nearest stars and brown dwarfs, nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked ...

''.

Reception

In 2012, ''King'' was listed at number seven on ''

PopMatters ''PopMatters'' is an international online magazine of cultural criticism that covers aspects of popular culture. ''PopMatters'' publishes reviews, interviews, and essays on cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television, fi ...

'' "15 Overlooked and Underrated Albums of the 1990s" list. In 2016, the album was hailed by Will Sheff of

Okkervil River Okkervil River is an American rock band led by singer-songwriter Will Sheff. Formed in Austin, Texas, in 1998, the band takes its name from a short story by Russian author Tatyana Tolstaya set on the river Okkervil in Saint Petersburg. They bega ...

as "a winning, confident, masterful collection of songs – poppy and sweet and with a low-key psychedelic undercurrent. Everything good about ''Star'' was still there and had been expanded upon, but in many ways this felt like a new, reinvented band."

Track listing

Charts

References

{{Authority control 1995 albums Belly (band) albums Albums produced by Glyn Johns Sire Records albums Reprise Records albums