A noirish paean to New York City, "Serenade" gives Kong top billing as it beatifies the complex icon.

"Kong has become a mythic figure, inseparable from this hard metropolis of dreamers," said Shadow, a rock poet who critics have compared to Lou Reed, Bruce Springsteen and even Walt Whitman.

The critically acclaimed album, which offers a gritty portrait of Gotham, from its famed icons to its ill-fated ghosts, casts Kong as patron saint of poets, painters, dreamers and losers.

"Kong plays an even larger role in our psyches than he does on screen," said Shadow. "Somehow, we love him as deeply as we fear him.

"He's the wild in us, unleashed and writ large. Who among us can take our eyes off him for a moment."

In the title track of "Serenade," poet Allen Ginsberg celebrates and ordains the great under ape, who is pictured dancing down Broadway to a chorus of saxophones. Through Shadow's post-modern opus, the beast presides over a sideshow of famous and colorful characters who inhabit songs about Times Square, Coney Island and the Bronx.

The Berkshire Eagle calls Shadow "an original storyteller, painting vivid portraits of the romance and terror of life in the world's greatest city." NY Rock says, "The disc ("Serenade") smokes and burns like steam coming out of a manhole cover, gritty and authentic."

To celebrate Kong's return, Shadow has made free copies of the title song, "King Kong Serenade" available online at www.allenshadow.com. Shadow's songs are also available on such download services as iTunes.