Each time I listen to Yours Truly, Angry Mob, the second LP from the British band Kaiser Chiefs, my mind, in an unconscious way, tries to link their sound with the perfect cross between a new wave band from the 80’s and a brit pop band from the 90’s. Trying to describe an album using the popular knowledge of some famous bands is a lazy and cheap trick that I won’t waste your time trying to explain. Dancing songs filled with unforgettable choruses, pop melodies, rocking guitars and adolescent lyrics. This is Kaiser Chiefs, a band that “read the papers everyday day” (“The Angry Mob”) and wants to be famous right now! (“Retirement”). And there is nothing better to get their aim across than a couple of smash hits with choruses that have just a couple of words going around in your head (“Ruby” and “I Can Do Without You”).
But not all are dance tunes, Yours Truly, Angry Mob, also features “Love's not a competition (but I'm winning)” that is a nice ballad with the most interesting lyrics on the LP; which is one of the highlights, a perfect song to play on your guitar in your room, alone. Other quiet moments are “Try Your Best” and the shorter track “Boxing Champ”, but those songs cannot change the main proclamation of the LP: get on your dancing shoes! (Oops, any relationship with Arctic Monkeys is a coincidence).
Kaiser Chiefs will not change the fate of the music, they are just trying to record the perfect pop song, and well, sometimes we need a band that gives us a couple of new lines to sing in our cars or in the shower. Quoting their own lyrics “I can do it, I can do it, I can do it, I can do it without you / But it wouldn't be very good”.
I think that they didn’t have problems with that, especially if they are trying to look like a new version of Beatles for Sale (the quoting of LP cover is so obvious), and also trying to sound like a cross between their favourite bands; something like Duran Duran mixed with Oasis, or Spandau Ballet mixed with Blur, or Human League mixed with Suede (finally the old cheap trick comes to me). You can choose your own couple.
Yours Truly, Angry Mob is a fresh LP with songs that stick in your head for a couple of days.
Published on Blogcritics 10-08-2007
Also available on LexisNexis
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