Khan of Finland
Khan of Finland
BY DAVID BERRY
5 March 2009
cover art
KHAN OF FINLAND
KHAN OF FINLAND
(I'M SINGLE)
US: 3 FEB 2009
UK: 26 JAN 2008
AMAZON
ITUNES
Generally speaking, soul is something that white boys need to employ sparingly; Can Oral, aka Khan of Finland’s self-titled full-length doesn’t do much to dispel that idea. At its most basic a marriage of electro-pop production with a white soul spirit, when it’s working—as on opener “Who Never Rests” or the cheeky “Excommunication”, both of which share driving piano and more sass than a lanky Berliner should be capable of—it’s funky, sexy night at a dark club. When it doesn’t—as with the overly atmospheric “You Like to Party” or the striving “Bottle Inn”—you can see the pejorative in either of those designations. Sadly Khan of Finland fails more often than succeeds, usually because Oral heaps on the soul a bit too generously, more often sounding like he’s really trying to be soulful than simply just being soulful. When he masters the art of the latter, though, he’s got something worth checking out.