K | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Studio album by | ||||
Released | 16 September 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 | ||||
| ||||
Singles from K | ||||
K is the debut album by English psychedelic rock band Kula Shaker, released on 16 September 1996. It became the fastest selling debut album in Britain since Elastica's debut the previous year, [4] selling over 105,768 copies in the first week. [5] The album reached the number-one position on the UK Albums Chart and number 200 on the US Billboard 200. It was voted number 879 in the third edition of Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums (2000). [6]
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 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., two 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 .
Review scores | |
---|---|
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [7] |
Alternative Press | 5/5 [8] |
Chicago Tribune | [9] |
Entertainment Weekly | B+ [10] |
The Guardian | [11] |
NME | 9/10 [12] |
Q | [13] |
Record Collector | [14] |
USA Today | [15] |
The Village Voice | C [16] |
The Independent noted that "Kula Shaker do what they do with so much gall, energy, conviction and dexterity (special honours go to the speedy bass-playing) that you forget to nitpick and imagine you're really hearing a lost masterpiece from 1971." [17]
All tracks are written by Crispian Mills except where indicated
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|
1. | "Hey Dude" | 4:10 | |
2. | "Knight on the Town" | 3:25 | |
3. | "Temple of Everlasting Light" | Mills, Alonza Bevan | 2:33 |
4. | "Govinda" | 4:57 | |
5. | "Smart Dogs" | 3:16 | |
6. | "Magic Theatre" | Mills, Bevan | 2:38 |
7. | "Into the Deep" | Mills, Bevan | 3:49 |
8. | "Sleeping Jiva" | Mills, Bevan, Jay Darlington, Paul Winterhart | 2:02 |
9. | "Tattva" | 3:46 | |
10. | "Grateful When You're Dead/Jerry Was There" | 5:42 | |
11. | "303" | Mills, Bevan | 3:08 |
12. | "Start All Over" | 2:35 | |
13. | "Hollow Man (Parts 1 & 2)" (plus 0:12 hidden track after – 13:04 silence) | 6:10 |
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|
14. | "Tattva" (Lucky 13 Mix) | Mills, Bevan, Darlington, Winterhart | 3:59 |
15. | "Into the Deep" (unreleased John Leckie version) | Mills, Bevan | 4:45 |
16. | "Red Balloon (Vishnu's Eyes)" | Tim Hardin | 3:42 |
17. | "Hush" ("Hush" is 2:58; plus 1:25 hidden track at the end, an extended version of the original hidden track) | Joe South | 17:20 |
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|
14. | "Raagy One (Waiting for Tomorrow)" | 4:27 | |
15. | "Tattva" | Mills, Bevan, Darlington, Winterhart | 3:59 |
16. | "Into the Deep" (unreleased John Leckie version) | Mills, Bevan | 4:45 |
17. | "Red Balloon (Vishnu's Eyes)" | Tim Hardin | 3:42 |
18. | "Hush" ("Hush" is 2:58; plus 1:25 hidden track at the end, an extended version of the original hidden track) | Joe South | 12:53 |
Kula Shaker
Guest musicians
Weekly charts
| Year-end charts
|
Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
---|---|---|
United Kingdom (BPI) [31] | 2× Platinum | 600,000^ |
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. |
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Kula Shaker are an English psychedelic rock band. Led by frontman Crispian Mills, the band came to prominence during the Post-Britpop era of the late 1990s. The band enjoyed commercial success in the UK between 1996 and 1999, notching up a number of Top 10 hits on the UK Singles Chart, including "Tattva", "Hey Dude", "Govinda", "Hush", and "Sound of Drums". The band's debut album, K, reached No. 1 on the UK Albums Chart. It was voted number 879 in Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums 3rd Edition (2000).
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"Hey Dude" is a Britpop song by English psychedelic rock band Kula Shaker. Written by frontman Crispian Mills and Kula Shaker, the song was released as the third single from their 1996 debut studio album, K, on 26 August 1996. Produced by John Leckie, "Hey Dude" became the band's joint-highest-charting song in the United Kingdom, peaking at number two in September 1996. Internationally, the single charted in Australia, Ireland, and the Netherlands, as well as on the Canadian and US rock charts. In Australia, the song was ranked at number 60 on the Triple J Hottest 100 of 1996.