Kaiser Chiefs - Ruby (B-Unique)
2/5
By: Michael Cragg
It may seem perverse to start a Kaiser Chiefs review with what's to follow, but sod it; something about this review has to be a little left of the middle.
Following the huge success and critical acclaim for their third album, 'OK Computer', Radiohead withdrew to the studio to create the sparse, electronica-fuelled 'Kid A'. Fans of the formers guitar-laden sound were initially confused, bewildered even. But in time, 'Kid A' has revealed its experimental charms and was recently voted the tenth best album of all time by a well-known music magazine. Similarly, Icelandic songstress Bjork followed her lush, string-laden opus 'Vespertine' with an album constructed solely around voices. That's right, no instruments whatsoever, just the varying timbres of her voice.
So, I apologise in advance if the Kaiser Chiefs announcement that their 'new' sound will no longer feature any "oohhhs" or "na-na-nas", doesn't fill me with any excitement. As if to rub it in, they've also gone all moody, no more pork pie hats or multi-coloured blazers. Instead, it's all black coats, balding heads and earnest interviews about the state of the music scene at the moment. Such a narrow-minded view of progression is reminiscent of Britpop, a cultural nadir if ever there was one. So it's no surprise to find that 'Ruby' sounds like an approximation of both Blur and Oasis; talk about leaving your options open!
Unfortunately for them it also reeks of Shed Seven and Mansun, two bands whose success at the time followed an almost pathological love for any British band with guitars. Heck, even Menswear had at least one hit single. But it's not simply that 'Ruby' is retrogressive, it's that it will be proclaimed by everyone as a 'massive step forward' or a 'solidifying of that Kaiser Chiefs sound', when in fact it's a lazy, clichéd, nauseating pile of Britpop-era dross. To add insult to injury it starts off with a chorus of "la-la-las", which they may see as progression, but which is surely only a stone's throw away from those much-maligned "na-na-nas".
Still, one step at a time lads.
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