Kaiser Chiefs - 'Employment' (B-Unique)
4/5
By: Toby L
Witty, wry, and even amusingly sinister, Kaiser Chiefs have caught us, haven't they? A British band keen to exude and exert the sort of hearty, carelessly eclectic range of jittery, credible pop music last lauded in 1994. Whilst everyone else their age and stage is setting the FX on their Casio keyboard units to JD or NO modes (Joy Division, or the 'Order, to you and I), Kaiser Chiefs are causing rowdy synth mayhem that shouldn't really be working.
But it does - because of one timeless factor; tunes. All very well creating punk-funk anthemery that kids with cautiously constructed haircuts in Trash on a Monday night will reservedly shake their hipster arses to, but - for the rest of us - the thought of resoundingly decent songwriting will do just fine, cheers.
The Leeds quintet's debut begins as it should - breathlessly; 'Everyday I Love You Less and Less' is so exhilaratingly inane, we hear its title-refrain exclaimed what seems every two f**king seconds, whilst a following 'I Predict A Riot' - on the issue of social urban decay - is so frantic and cheekily astute ('A friend of a friend, he got beaten; Would never have happened to Smeaton...'), we're quite knackered, just minutes in.
The following 'epic' one - 'Modern Way' - helps matters; half the pace, enlaced in barking backing harmonies and some nifty bass dynamism. It could be Blur from the '93 attempted-resurgent Mod era (side-fact: in Stephen Street, they share the same producer). Then, more tongue-in-cheek nonsense - 'Na Na Na Na Naa', which includes a frankly ridiculous guitar-solo, and sounds like Bowie clashing with, erm, Blur again, 'Great Escape'-time; frenetic, oddball, not half eccentric and slightly all over the place.
So, seemingly, what Kaiser Chiefs are able to instil, is a true sense of non-segregating national pride and an arsenal of boundless bizarreness that few are extravagant/imaginative enough to attempt. Album centrepiece, and finest career-point thus far, 'Oh My God' is the perfect synopsis - lyrically arresting, with laugh-out-loud similes aplenty, an infectious, giddy piano chattering throughout - and a chorus so mammoth it could launch a shuttle into space. The appeal is fittingly tantamount to the band's own exhaustive ambition.
The rest of 'Employment' struggles to keep up quite the velocity (save for the cunning 'Teenage Kicks' nicking in the middle-eight of 'Saturday Night', or Specials-y buoyancy of 'What Did I Ever Give You?'), but - by this point - you wouldn't anticipate it to. For a debut, Kaiser Chiefs have provided enough considered showmanship, dextrous instrumental aptitude and barmy sentimentality to mark out their corner in the future as one hard to beat. An act slowly stretching their wings; just wait 'til they truly begin to ascend skywards.
Artists in this article: Kaiser Chiefs
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