Cold War Kids - We Used To Vacation EP (V2)
4/5
By: Thomas Hannan
I'll say it now - if this band are as massive as I want them to be in 2007, then I'll be as fed up with them as I am right now of Kasabian. That makes no sense. But you know how when you really love something, you say things of it that might be completely nonsensical but the thing you're professing adoration for suffers not one bit because the idea is that the enthusiasm still comes across despite the poor construction and content of the sentence? Whatever. That's what's meant to happen here.
'We Used to Vacation', the title track of this EP, is brilliant, grunge influenced white soul - noisy, jittery, sung by one of the best voices I've heard from a male in many a moon. When they play it live (as this lad was lucky enough to witness on the recent tour with Two Gallants), they feel every note with every bone in their body. What's great about this recording is that totally comes across on to the CD. Corking song, too.
'Expensive Tastes' has not only the brilliantly cutting line 'once I saw you naked, there was nothing to show', but also another winning tune - an unpredictable one, a tune that borrows from all over the place, sure, but a strikingly strong one all the same. They understand space, this band. They understand restraint. They use it well. They use it well on 'In Harmony In Silver' - knowing that all that's needed is just that little bit of percussion, those few dull thuds, just to set the whole thing off. To make it soar. They know that in other places, 'Quiet, Please!' for example, they need to hammer the things like there's a trapped kitten underneath the skin of the drums and the only way they're going to get it out is to break through the skin with their sticks. Second best track on the EP, it is.
Alright, alright - the first track's a lot better than the ones after it. But check their album, check the live sets. Cold War Kids have loads more that are as good as 'We Used To Vacation'. 2007 is theirs, if they want it.
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