After King’s X parted ways with their manager/producer, Sam Taylor, after their eponymous fourth album in 1992, it was only a matter of time before their Lennon/McCartney-esque pair – bassist Doug Pinnick and guitarist Ty Tabor – found additional creative outlets in solo and side projects.  Tabor did virtually everything on his self-produced independent debut, Naomi’s Solar Pumpkin: writing, engineering, all instruments and vocals, as well as the cover art.  Initially intended as a demo to shop for a solo deal, he sold it himself through the mail.  After King’s X left Atlantic and signed with Metal Blade, the otherwise mostly death metal label was more than happy to add their solo albums to their catalog.

Tabor released this album, comprised of mostly songs from Naomi’s Solar Pumpkin, but with Alan Doss of former label/management-mates Galactic Cowboys on drums (the remainder of that band appears here as well, in minor roles).  Also making cameos are Frank Hart (another former stable-mate from the under-appreciated Atomic Opera) and Tabor’s son, Josh on French horn.  Tabor again writes everything himself, produces, sings, plays all guitars and basses, organ, as well as cover art.  The album reveals just what Tabor brings to the King’s X triumvirate.  As perhaps the more-McCartney half of the primary songwriting pair of the band, he also brings a good deal of Harrison’s songwriting style; in fact, his voice sounds closer to Harrison’s.  The songs are more pop-sounding than the darker, heavier and harder Poundhound album that Pinnick released about the same time as this.  There is also a decidedly more-prog element that Tabor injects into King’s X. 

Fifteen years ago, in 1998, King’s X released Tapehead, along with these two solo albums.  All three albums are top-tier and essential for any King’s X fan’s collection. 

This review is available in book format (hardcover and paperback) in Music Street Journal: 2013  Volume 1 at lulu.com/strangesound.

The one place on this album that Tabor raises his voice above conversational level occurs during the chorus to this album: “Take me to the island Sea / There’s a world outside my window pane / but I can’t face the thought of rain, so let me keep it inside of me.”

Tabor slips in a bit of his religious thinking that was more present in the early days of King’s X.  “And a man stands tall for the one true God / an evolutionist says it’s a pile of wad / and the scientists’ dogma seems awfully religious to me.”

There’s a definite Beatles groove to this one, complete with a sitar/table interlude with distant spoken word hovering underneath.  A touch of cello takes us out.