K | ||||
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Studio album by Kula Shaker | ||||
Released | 16 September 1996 (UK) 22 October 1996 (US) |
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Recorded | January–May 1996 | |||
Studio | Eden, RAK, Townhouse, Chipping Norton, Livingston, The Pierce Room, Wessex, Maison Rouge, Eastcote Studios | |||
Genre | Psychedelic rock, raga rock, Britpop | |||
Length | 48:51 (not including 13:04 silence) | |||
Label | Columbia | |||
Producer | John Leckie, Shep & Dodge, Crispian Mills | |||
Kula Shaker chronology | ||||
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Professional ratings | |
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Review scores | |
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | |
The Austin Chronicle | |
Alternative Press | |
The A.V. Club | (mixed) |
Robert Christgau | C |
Entertainment Weekly | B+ |
NME | 9/10 |
Q | |
Record Collector | |
Rolling Stone | (favourable) |
K is the debut album by Kula Shaker, released on 16 September 1996. When it was released, it became the fastest selling debut album in Britain since Elastica's debut the previous year. The album reached the #1 position in the UK charts, however in America it stalled at #200 in the Billboard charts.
The Grateful Dead's psychedelic rock style is an influence on Kula Shaker's first and second albums. The hidden track after "Hollow Man" is a recording of A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, the founder of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, speaking about his own guru.
The album received mixed reviews; Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic noted the band's "powerful rush", but said they "have trouble coming up with hooks".
The cover art (by comic-book artist Dave Gibbons) consists of various images related to the letter K, including: John F. Kennedy, Lord Kitchener, Karl Marx, Gene Kelly, Katharine Hepburn, Ken Dodd, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Danny Kaye, Kal-El (Superman), Boris Karloff (as Frankenstein's monster), Krishna, King Kong, Martin Luther King, Jr., 2 Knights (a pair of Keys on one of them), a Kettle, Kali, the Kaiser, Nikita Khrushchev, Grace Kelly, the number 11 (symbolizing K), and Rudyard Kipling's book Kim.