King Krule drops new single ‘Alone, Omen 3’, album due in two weeks

‘Alone, Omen 3’ is the second taste of South London musician Archy Marshall‘s third album Man Alive! Marshall started the King Krule project back in 2011. 

King Krule announced the album with the single ‘(Don’t Let the Dragon) Draag On’ in mid-January. However, lo-fi recordings of several tracks previously appeared in his 2019 short film, Hey World! The film was shot by Marshall’s partner Charlotte Patmore and contained snippets of ‘Alone Omen 3’ and ‘Draag On’ plus ‘Perfecto Miserable’ and ‘Energy Fleets’.

‘Alone, Omen 3’ is down tempo and full of twisted guitar sounds and disorienting stereo programming. The line “don’t forget you’re not alone” recurs throughout the song, providing an unexpected bit of comfort. Jocelyn Anquetil directed the song’s music video, which you can watch below.

Watch: King Krule – Alone, Omen 3

Later in the song Marshall sings, “Every minute, every second, you’re not alone, you’re not alone/Sometimes you’re stretched, sometimes you’re stretched, girl/But don’t forget you’re not alone.” The patent urgency could relate to the fact he and Patmore welcomed a baby daughter, Marina, into the world in March 2019.

Man Alive! is the third King Krule LP. Marshall was just 19 when his debut album Six Feet Beneath the Moon came out in 2013. He released another album, A New Place 2 Drown, under his own name in 2015.

The second official King Krule album, The OOZ,  was widely hailed as one of the best albums of 2017. Publications such as Vice, Pitchfork, Dazed and Clash listed it in year-end top tens.

Watch: King Krule – Czech One

Pitchfork also placed it at #60 in their 200 Best Albums of the 2010s. “Marshall sets a new benchmark for [guitar music],” wrote the site’s Jazz Monroe, “conjuring an odyssey of overdosed psych, anxious hip-hop, zombified punk, spoken word, loping jazz, and sound art. Vignettes flit by, conjuring heartbreak and depression; the expensive, isolating city backdrops his existential funk.”

King Krule last toured Australia in March 2018.

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