ALBUM REVIEW: The K’s – ‘I Wonder If The World Knows?’

It must be one of life’s greatest joys for an indie band to have your early work connect. In a highly competitive field where variation can be (and often is) scarce, it’s a real roll of the dice for who actually leaves a dent. As for who sticks around…well, best stock up on horseshoes and four-leaf clovers, because that kind of luck is practically inhuman. In the case of The K’s, then, it remains a mystery what higher power has deigned to bless them up to now. They struck big with Sarajevo as an obvious indie smash that anyone could see from a mile away, but that was all the way back in 2017. Not only have they weathered the best part of a decade through the sparest of single drops, but they’ve only got more momentum than ever now. They had a main stage slot at Reading & Leeds in 2022, likely before a debut was even conceived; they’re back to do the same again this year. As quick as the indie hype cycle is to rotate its cast of ‘stars’ out dead on their 15th minute, you’d be led to believe that The K’s’ first efforts resonated that much that a notoriously fickle industry would be willing to do the unprecedented, and wait for them.

It’s strange, too, because on its face, I Wonder If The World Knows? (yes, that question mark is meant to be there and is very awkward) isn’t any grand deviation. The K’s present themselves as precocious, Northern indie band, spinning yarns of everyday subject matter than any of the myriad acts under that banner would feel at home in. And yet, there’s something here that’s nudged above the waterline, almost across the board. Where their peers and contemporaries might wear a disposability that’s apparent on impact, The K’s aren’t as encumbered, and can therefore run further and jump higher on basically the same fuel. Maybe even enough to go all the way.

For starters, The K’s clearly understand what indie songs like this should be. This isn’t the stuff that gets shipped to landfill after running up its few-month clock; this is what the backbone of the scene is constructed on. Thus, I Wonder If The World Knows?’s better-than-average status is pretty palpable, even on what would otherwise be the filler cuts. Landmines and Circles are basically nothing new after the formula has been so deeply ingrained, but jumpy indie guitars, slam-dunk hooks and a whole load of twinkling, widescreen gloss can still pull their weight. The calibre is notched up higher overall, the outcome of a band with a ‘bigger is better’ mindset that’s seen much of their 2000s forebears’ work generally stick around. The K’s are taking aim at that era, clearly, in the easiest transposition possible to any ginormous festival stage in the land, if and when the call comes.

It’s also worth appreciating, though, the specifics of where that comes from, and how, while The K’s do wind up as a more spry take on the usual approach, there are individual threads to pick up. Key among them is James Boyle as a vocalist, among a blindsidingly small contingent of indie frontmen who can, in fact, actually sing. There’s no abrasive Northern-indie squawk or uninspired regional drawl; he’s clear, strong, fluid—essentially enough to raise the bar on his own, just there. But there’s also range and technique to pair with them, in the quicker lyrical pace of Throw It All Away and No Place Like Home, or how surprisingly lovely an understated delivery can turn out on Throw It All Away and Hoping Maybe.

Now, granted, there is an element of overselling all of this, as is the case with every indie band finding the drive to kick themselves into gear. The K’s are not breaking down walls whatsoever; as far as innovation and creativity goes, they’re barely chipping away. But there’s also value in realising what makes a sound—any sound—good, and running with it. That’s the primary, bejeweled-to-no-end positive of I Wonder If The World Knows?, and The K’s themselves feel aware of that. They’re at a point where they can go all out on sounding big and expensive, bringing in strings for simulataneous cred in the market of opulence, and a feel of topshelf status to contrast with grubby, ‘grassroots’ put-ons that won’t remotely stick the landing. (Side note: Hoping Maybe does seem to have be remixed to add the strings to its initial single release, and its stock goes through the roof for it.) There’s also Lights Go Down as the apex of The K’s’ propensity for scope, taking the form of their version of Oasis’ All Around The World in the crescendos and tempos and the specific directions the solo will bend in—flagrant, certainly, but completely earned.

In a way, it’s almost reminiscent of Sam Fender and how he’s sought to uplift the quality of familiar indie beats. Black & Blue might be a very close comparison in its details, but I Wonder If The World Knows? as a whole gives off a similar aura, of more thoughtful, articulate takes on song structures and topics that can often feel plucked off the shelf. There’s the night-out romance on Chancer and Hoping Maybe, and the ‘boy in a small town’ blueprint of Hometown, given that extra coating of shine on the outside and grease in the interior. It definitely helps that Boyle can pull off a more expressive and even vulnerable stance, with self-reflections on Icarus and Circles that offer more than traditional indie stoicism might otherwise. You know how a ‘too-cool-to-care’ veneer comes off as embarrassingly fake, almost all the time? Well, when The K’s pull all of this off without it, it feels even more so.

And again, it does need to be hammered in that The K’s’ quality stands up to the most scrutiny in a relative environment. Among indie music—and indie music alone—you’re getting far more out of this than sending it out in the wide world, cold and unaware of what it’ll be facing. Having said that, insulated by their own environment (which is where they’ll inevitably spend the most time), The K’s can run laps around the majority of others. I Wonder If The World Knows? is exactly the kind of comfortable indie album that will fully enforce the heights reached by its creators, where the appeal is quite self-evident all the way through. ‘Indie anthems’ as a term has grown into such a codified nothingburger of a phrase, but The K’s are living up to it with all the purity intended. This is the good, (relatively) classic stuff that’s just nice to have around, filling up tour schedules and summer festival bills in ways that no one can complain at. Hopefully for The K’s, there’s much more of that to come.

For fans of: Catfish And The Bottlemen, The Reytons, The Snuts

‘I Wonder If The World Knows?’ by The K’s is released on 5th April on LAB Records.

Words by Luke Nuttall