When the Red King Comes


When the Red King Comes is the second album by the Elephant 6 band Elf Power. It is a concept album about the Red King's kingdom. The cover art is taken from a section of an imaginary map called “The Land of Make Believe”, drawn in 1930 by Jaro Hess. A more complete version of the map can be seen in The Writer's Map: An Atlas of Imaginary Lands.
"Needles in the Camel's Eyes" is a cover of the Brian Eno song.

Critical reception

Trouser Press wrote that "though still noisy, the improved sound coincides with a sharper focus in the songwriting and the first hint of impending mythological obsessions." The Chicago Tribune thought that "in Elf Power's hands, psychedelia is a means of transforming personal trauma into a twisted kind of triumph."
AllMusic wrote that "the fuzzy, lo-fi production is an Elephant 6 hallmark, but the unique instrumentation and cryptic, stream-of-consciousness wordplay suggest something altogether different."

Personnel