There’s romance as well as heartache to be found on the record. However, this time around he’s letting us into his labored love life-and there’s a newfound glossiness in his sound that's paired with the new world of intimacy in his lyrics. Archy’s no stranger to opening a window to his inner flux and turmoil, as outlined in the suicidal feelings aired in King Krule’s “Cementality” from 2013’s 6 Feet Beneath The Moon. “Arise Dear Brother” brings with it more of the same crushing reality: the song moves from brittle reflections on cheating ( Even though you fucked him I don’t give a shit) to the importance of family ( But wait, there’s some trouble with my mother/You know I would rather be with you, lover). Fuck, my mental health/went down the drain as well he hums on “Swell,” wrapping himself around the narrative of a relationship gone sour. Archy airs his lingering grievances, bridging the gap between adulthood and adolescence with a ragged kind of uncertainty. Meanwhile, the record is the sound of a teenager becoming a man. It’s a vivid and true reflection of Archy and his family’s easy-feeling summers-the Marshall home has an open door policy, as I saw in 2013 when Archy’s mates dropped by during our interview to eat pizza and pet the dog. There’s humor in the photos as well: a cat decimates a miniature village like a furry Godzilla, Archy attempts to wash the dog in a bath with his mom, and doner kebabs glisten under artificial light. Beautiful girls smile in dappled sunlight, and warmly out-of-focus snapshots are scrawled with poems that offer insight into the complex cusp of manhood as Archy spends his last summer as a teenager (“my face wears war”, he writes in dashed-off freehand, ominously adding “beneath my skin I descend, see you on the other side my friend”). Though the record itself is relatively short, clocking in at just 37 minutes, the accompanying book is a hefty work: a hazy, seemingly endless summer rendered via photos of the brothers in their mates smoking in south London parks, lazing about in bedrooms, and hanging out in beer gardens. Even though it only represents a short burst of months, it's clear from its effortlessness that it comes from two people who have been creating together their whole lives. A New Place 2 Drown tells the story of summer 2014, evoking the kind of lazy, stoned days I dropped in 12 months previously. That it’s his most personal project to date should come as no surprise. For the release, Archy has temporarily put a cap on his ever-shifting creative identity (as well as King Krule, his aliases include Zoo Kid, Dik Ooz, DJ JD Sports, and Edgar The Beatmaker), instead choosing to symbolically put it out under his birth name. Two years on, that same familial warmth infuses this week’s new collaborative project from the Marshall brothers, A New Place 2 Drown, which comprises an album, a 208 page photo/poetry/art book, and a short film. Everyone was chuckling, smiling, and drinking tea. There was laughter as Archy and his mate attempted to display a huge print of Jack’s artwork for 6 Feet Beneath The Moon-Archy’s debut album as King Krule-by dangling it from the first floor window because it was so massive. Archy, his brother Jack, and a mate were gathered in the garden, smoking weed while the boys’ mother showed me the DIY fashion studio in the back of the house, before cutting her sons’ hair in the garden. Back in the summer of 2013, I interviewed an 18-year-old Archy Marshall at his childhood home in East Dulwich, south London, for Dazed.
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