Onetime Hammerbox guitarist Harris Thurmond steers the modern rock quartet Kingsley through its ten-song eponymous debut with varying degrees of success. If the urgent Foo Fighters-meets-Queens of the Stone Age thump of “New Rock City” captures the listeners attention, innocuous, mid-tempo numbers like “One of the Good Ones” and “Jilted” (which is quirky to the point of being annoying) have a hard time sustaining it. There are moments of greatness, like the Weezer-ish stomp of “Stammer and Stutter” — which showcases Thurmond’s deep, occasionally charismatic pipes — and the late-album ballad “Run Me Down,” which shows a warm, lilting side of the group. – John D. Luerssen
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