This particular King Charles should watch out. Although he’s assumed the trappings of a Georgian fop, he’d be well minded to pay heed to his predecessors King Charles I - beheaded in 1649 - and King Charles II – dogged by plague and the Great Fire of London. On the evidence of the thin gruel that is LoveBlood, his debut album, our latter-day King Charles’s place in history is far from assured.
LoveBlood slots neatly into the gaps between Noah and the Whale, Mumford & Sons, Jamie T, Lily Allen and Jack Peñate, via a layby stop-off with Mika and Olly Murs. The only thing separating the man born plain old Charles Costa, a former Durham University sociology student, from this crowd is a colossal amount of chutzpah and a rock-solid business backing. After time with forgotten Laura Marling support band Adventure Playground his breakthrough came through winning Nashville’s 2010 International Songwriting Competition. The big time called and he was LA-bound to complete LoveBlood.
Apart from the sore-thumb FM guitar rock of “Coco Chitty”, LoveBlood canters through 10 straightforward and repetitive fancies that take in Afro-rhythms, skanky beats, smidgens of Balkan-lite and Costa’s lispy, glottal-stop ridden voice. The lyrics are trite. "You’re the trigger on my gun, the sandbank in my ocean,” he declares on “Ivory Road”, while "Wilde Love" offers “all men kill the thing they love". But if the pop is good enough, does any of this matter? Probably not. His tunes are sunny and pep-filled, and he has sway-along, singalong choruses in extremis. LoveBlood is modern bubblegum. No more, no less. France’s now-forgotten, similarly marketed Slimmy tried this trick a few years ago and was soon back where he came from. That’s the case study Costa should be looking at for the pitfalls to avoid if he wants to ensure longevity.
Watch the video for King Charles's "Bam Bam"