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Showing posts with label pop. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pop. Show all posts

Apr 12, 2008

Pop: The Kooks (Konk)



Luke Pritchard
Hugh Harris
Paul Garred
Dan Logan

The Kooks never cease to impress me; from the day i found out that Pritchard wrote "Naive" at age fifteen i have been in awe of their musical talent. The Kooks have shown such promise; with their debut album Inside In/ Inside Out going platinum, opening for the Rolling Stones, the adoring fans, the adoring women, the length of playtime they receive on mainstream radio and my play count of Eddie's Gun.

And then Konk came along.

Not to say that Konk is a bad album, in fact in isolation it's a great album. The guitars are catchy, the lyrics are intelligent and there is a definite "sing-a-long" vibe to Konk. "Always Where I Need To Be" is a perfect "first of summer song" for 2008.



The only problem i have with it is the lack of progression. Kooks 08 is still Kooks 06. What has changed? There has been little sign of the band maturing and moving away from their original sound. But why should they? Well for starters when i listen to them on my iPod, (off the top of my head) i cant tell where one album stops and the other starts. How long can they continue this "Kook Album Template" before people get bored and turn towards other bands who provide a little bit more than the Kooks or are exactly the same but with a more catchier name "The Crayon Kids". I'm tired of hearing about Luke Pritchard's love life and the groans of wasted teenage dreams. Give me something more.

Maybe this is me just being overly pedantic - trying to find faults in what is destined to be a best seller. Errgh. I don't know if i truly like it or not - well i do...i like it.

Apr 9, 2008

Pop: Foals



Foals Foals Foals. With a new album "Antidotes" out, these five guys reek of yummy British accents and strange obscure bleeping sounds in the middle of their songs.

Yannis Philippakis
Jack Bevan
Jimmy Smith
Edwin Congreave
Walter Gervers

Formed by various cliques of childhood friends; a pair of Oxford drop-outs, a pair of cult math-rockers & then some, Foals bring a unique mix of sounds to the fore: they fuse synthesizers with guitar lines. Their music is experimentative, having been produced by Dave Sitek of "TV on the Radio" -- it's a mixture of the usual mechanic techno beats & slightly more unusual 12-piece brass afro-beats, and it's bit of a rollercoaster listen through the whole album.



If you like the experimentative, math rock, obscure (and sometimes slightly angry?) lyrics or even just a bit of unclassifiable synthesised pop, then this band is one you should definitely check out; their debut album has been heralded as one of the best Britain will see released this year, and tracks such as "Cassius" & "Electric Bloom" do not disappoint :-)