Bedroom Indie-Rock
There's something to be said for shunning the limelight, especially in this media-drenched, Li-Lo adulating society that values celeb column inches over actual musical substance. Well, it can certainly be assumed that Adrian Killens won't be seen dangling from the arm of any Hollywood starlets in the near future, yet judging from his recent release of 'Selected Demos - 2002-2009', there's nowhere he'd rather be less than in the glare of flashlights or in Heat magazine...no, he'd much rather be in his bedroom, writing songs of such impressive quality, all the camera-hogging songsmith poseurs that litter Heat magazine's covers can only dream about.
'Prettyish' is a quaint opener, but quaint in a really good way, with a chugging acoustic guitar carrying Killens' scratchy vocal throughout the whole song, a lisping Marc Bolan with Evan Dando's tongue. The actual song is a paean to social embarrassment and not wanting to be seen as 'uncool', something that the world and his prettyish wife will be able to relate to; however, in releasing this collection of raw, intimate and self-exposing songs, appearing uncool is something Killens is clearly not worried about at all, and is all the cooler for it.
Giving way to the garage rock slacker anthem '22', a song that could easily slot into Weezer's back catalogue, 'Selected Demos...' takes the listener through a tribute to all of Killens' favourite acts and artists, positing him to be a veritable jukebox of original takes on classic genres. 'Bored' is pure Eels, circa-Beautiful Freak era; you almost expect a nonchalant voiceover from the big E man himself, describing everything that is wrong with youth culture in one continuous monotone. With the fuzzed up spikiness of 'It's Only A Drink', Killens then dabbles in shoegaze', a DIY guitar tone lending the whole song an endearingly twee element as he desperately tries to justify him and his friends' intoxicated antics.
'Edinburgh' is hilarious in all its potty-mouthed glory, as the song takes us through Killens' blurry night out; searingly sarcastic, brashly decadent and wince-inducingly honest, 'Edinburgh' could not be more aptly titled. Its travelling counterpart, 'Amsterdam', is quite possibly the most entertaining song about a prostitute since Roxeanne, with its hilariously confessional chorus, “I did something that I've never done before, I did some dirty Russian whore”; with English ambassadors like Killens, its a wonder why the tourist board haven't confiscated his passport yet.
With the lack of proper production and the similar DIY musical style, one would expect the album to drag towards the end; however, this is not the case as the tunes continue to envelope you in their raw intimacy and honest humour, the home recordings simply adding to the sense of unity between Killens and his small, but loyal audience.
As Killens croons on the album's penultimate track, 'Maybe', “Maybe, just maybe all my dreams will all come true, because my goals are so low, that all my dreams just have to come true.” Ironically, if he aimed his sights higher, he may lose his talent for the perceptive understatement, so let's be content with his bedroom musical meandering and hope that no one else discovers this hidden gem.