Kaiser Chiefs - 'Good Days Bad Days'
Are the Kaiser Chiefs all right? I'm not asking that in the sense of one of those weird internet pop up adverts which inexplicably asks you "DO YOU LIKE LEONA LEWIS? YES/NO" as though anything is ever that straightforward, but I can't help feeling they seem a bit out of sorts these days. A bit tired, maybe. Listening to this single gave me an odd urge to nip round and offer to make them all a cup of tea while they put their feet up.
Which is odd, because the thing that endeared them to me most when they first made it big with tracks like 'I Predict A Riot' and 'Every Day I Love You Less And Less' was their boundless energy - there was something infectious and mischievous about them. I wasn't really crazy about the second album, but the third album so far has left me feeling ambivalent - I think the quality of the songs has improved, but it doesn't feel like their hearts are really in it.
'Good Days Bad Days' is a good example of this - it all kicks off nicely enough with some synthing, some grooving, and some distracting guitar twiddles, but despite the best efforts of the chorus and the "hey! hey!" middle eight, it never really gets out of third gear.
Obviously not every song can or should be a roof-raising stomper, but when all the other ingredients are in the right place and things still don't feel right, I can't help pointing to the general lack of ooomph as the underlying problem.
Then again, I suppose we're all exhausted in the run-up to Christmas, aren't we? Maybe they'll be feeling more like themselves in the new year.
Download: Out now
CD Released: December 15th
(Steve Perkins)
Comment number 1.
At 10th Dec 2008, Roadriverandrail wrote:True story
I'm in a clothes shop in Ashbourne with my partner. She's trying some clothes on. I find myself listening to the music playing through the shop stereo. It's so bad, I'm fascinated. I listen for about three tracks (i absorbed at least 2 more before being left to my own devices unconsciously). The songwriting is laughably amateurish and the singing is so, so bad i have to ask the assistant who's cd this is.
'Oh, do you like it?' she says brightly.
'No. I think it's the worst music I've ever heard.'
'Oh,' she says, a bit crushed.
'Sorry, I didn't mean to...'
'No. It's okay.'
'So who is it?'
'I'll go and have a look.'
She comes back.
'The Kaiser Chiefs.'
It was their first album. After that I saw them on the tv and heard the stuff you all know a few more times. You could hardly get away from them. My view has hardly changed. The worst music I've ever heard? Maybe not, but I still think their famous first album is poorly constructed, amateurish, uninteresting, completely without a single well-developed idea, let alone an original one.
So the question from me to you is this:
Why on earth did you fall for them in the first place?
RRR
Complain about this comment (Comment number 1)
Comment number 2.
At 11th Dec 2008, U13737844 wrote:This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.
Complain about this comment (Comment number 2)
Comment number 3.
At 13th Dec 2008, softchews01 wrote:HOW COULD YOU SAY THAT!!!!
They truly rock and their first album was their best work. I do kind of agree that they are calming down a bit but, is that such a bad thing?
Discuss
No? alright then, I will. As long as they keep some lively song I'm happy as somthing that is very happy. Yay.
Complain about this comment (Comment number 3)