''The Ooz'' (stylised as ''The OOZ'') is the third studio album by English singer-songwriter Archy Marshall, and his second album under the stage name King Krule. It was released on 13 October 2017 via

True Panther Sounds True Panther Sounds (TPS) is a New York City-based independent record label founded by Dean Bein, previously owned by Matador Records and distributed by Beggars Group. The label began in 2004 in San Francisco to release a tour-only 7" by founders ...

and

XL Recordings XL Recordings is a British independent record label founded in 1989 by Tim Palmer and Nick Halkes. It has been ran and co-owned by Richard Russell since 1996. It forms part of the Beggars Group. Although only releasing an average of six album ...

. The album incorporates elements of

trip hop Trip hop (sometimes used synonymously with "downtempo") is a musical genre that originated in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom, especially Bristol. It has been described as a psychedelic music, psychedelic fusion of hip hop music, hip hop ...

, R&B, punk rock, and

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

Background

"Czech One" was released in August 2017 as the first King Krule song in four years. Archy Marshall subsequently announced the release of ''The Ooz'' in September 2017, with its title and release date being first reported in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' fall preview guide. The album is Marshall's first studio album as King Krule since 2013's '' 6 Feet Beneath the Moon''.

Reception

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, ''The Ooz'' received an average score of 80, based on 21 reviews, indicating "generally positive reviews". In a review for

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

, Andy Kellman compared the album to its predecessor stating that "the songwriting is more refined and the sounds are more disparate, resulting in a sort of controlled chaos, a scuzzy mix of nervy neo-rockabilly projectiles, howling dirges, and noodling dive-lounge tunes." '' Pitchfork'' gave ''The Ooz'' their "Best New Music" designation, with Jayson Greene complimenting the diversity of musical styles used on the album, as well as the distinctive sounds and textures. He wrote that the album "is the richest and most immersive album the London singer-songwriter has made yet" and that it is "a masterpiece of jaundiced vision from one of the most compelling artists alive."

Alexis Petridis Alexis Petridis ( el, Αλέξης Πετρίδης; born 13 September 1971) is a British journalist, head rock and pop critic for the UK newspaper ''The Guardian'', as well as a regular contributor to the magazine '' GQ''. In addition to his mus ...

of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' was more ambivalent, acknowledging the diverse musical styles while also considering the album to be "frustrating" and "a difficult listen." Though he recommends the album, Petridis considers the album's length to be a detraction, writing, "But self-indulgence is also its biggest drawback...The Ooz lasts more than an hour and virtually every track is allowed to ramble on for longer than it needs to." It was nominated for the 2018

Mercury Prize The Mercury Prize, formerly called the Mercury Music Prize, is an annual music prize awarded for the best album released in the United Kingdom by a British or Irish act. It was created by Jon Webster and Robert Chandler in association with the B ...

Accolades

Track listing

Notes * "Midnight 01 (Deep Sea Diver)" contains a sample from "Temptation Sensation", written by Heinz Kiessling.

Personnel

Musicians * King Krule – vocals, guitar, bass, drums, keys, vocoder * Dilip Harris – triangle, percussion, vibraphone, synth, marimba * James Wilson – bass, vocals * George Bass – drums * Ignacio Salvadores – saxophone * Jack Towell – guitar * Andy Ramsay – drum programming, percussion * Marc Pell – bongos, tambourine * Nana Giobbi – piano *

Okay Kaya Kaya Wilkins (born August 14, 1990), better known as Okay Kaya, is a Norwegian-American musician from New Jersey. History Wilkins was born in New Jersey and raised in Nesoddtangen, 4 miles outside of Oslo. Raised by her mother along with 5 brot ...

– additional vocals * Beatriz Ortiz Mendes – spoken word * Idris Vicuña – spoken word * Maya Coline – backing vocals * Ella Rimmer – backing vocals * Adam Marshall – spoken word , backing vocals * Maria Dmetriev – spoken word Production * Dilip Harris – co-production, mixing, engineering *

Archy Marshall Archy Ivan Marshall (born 24 August 1994), also known by his stage name King Krule, among other names, is an English singer, songwriter, musician, rapper and record producer. He began recording music in 2010 under the moniker Zoo Kid. The fol ...

– co-production, engineering * Andy Ramsay – engineering * Senor El Funkelinos – engineering * Connor Atanda – engineering *

Barry Grint Barry Stephen Grint (born April 1959) is an English mastering engineer and member of the mastering group of the Music Producers Guild (MPG). Grint has worked on over 20 UK Number One records and more than 100 UK Top Ten hits. Projects for art ...

– mastering

Charts

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ooz 2017 albums King Krule albums True Panther Sounds albums XL Recordings albums