Written June 2009:
Previously in Flynndie Reviews....
Right bumper blog today for a quality band, Kasabian, but if you recall in the last blog on Flynndie Reviews, I gave what may have seemed a bit of a harsh review of Maximo Park’s 3rd album ‘Quicken The Heart’, in which I gave it '6 kids with chickenpox out of 10'.
However, having now had the chance to give it a few more listens, it’s definitely a grower, the opening two tracks are much better than I gave them credit for and overall I like the album as a whole so feel it is more deserving of a 7 out of 10, nearly an 8. Still yet to watch the DVD but I imagine its good shit! Right now onto....
Kasabian - West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum
Forget the kerrrazy album title this is a solid album, although not quite genius. Now be warned this is quite a different animal to the 1st two Kasabian albums, more like a cat ‘likes to be unique, but always assured of itself’ and this is by no means a bad thing. I love the fact that this band has a genuinely unique sound going for them, therefore making this review a bit tougher to make comparisons to other bands but try I shall.
So opening track ‘Underdog’ is actually a good starting point to where ‘Empire’ left off, chances are you’ll recognise this track as it was used on the Bravia TV advert with Kaka doing keepy-ups in a Joe-90 style spinning thingy, and it gets you nicely into the record. ‘Where Did All The Love Go?’ follows and this is the first insight that this album is more laidback than the first two, this is a good foot-tapping tune and is quickly followed by two more ‘Swarfiga’ and previous standalone single ‘Fast Fuse’, again another typical sort of Kasabian tune which I always liked.
The middle tracks of the album are where things become really laid back and subtle, ‘Take Aim, ‘Thick As Theives’ and West Ryder’, all well written songs in fairness but I find that my interest tends to wane a bit at this point of the album for some reason, fortunately 1st single ‘Vlad The Impaler’ restores it again. When I first heard this I was not too keen on it, but when you hear it in place on the album, it really picks the album up again. Serge is a fucking genius when it comes to picking the right songs for singles!
Track 10 ‘Secret Alphabets’ is my favourite track on the album, although for some reason I find it hard to explain why! This is not the sort of track you would associate Kasabian with. It opens with sounds that would not be out of place on The Beatles ‘Revolver’, and then beautifully merges into a laidback tune that I would expect from a Cooper Temple Clause B-Side (One of my all time favourite bands, RIP!). A-ha, that’s why I fucking love this track so much!
Track 11 ‘Fire’ is another good foot tapper and closer ‘Happpiness’ is alright but certainly no ‘Doberman’ from Empire which was a fucking epic closer. Overall though, I’m really into this laidback but assured effort from Kasabian and I am gonna give it 8 lunatics out of 10! I’m looking forward to watching the Live DVD that came with it from their performance at the Royal Albert Hall.
Tune in for my next blog, as the boys from Idlewild have finally been in touch and ‘Post Electric Blues’ (jazzy album title huh!!) has finally been released from its hostage like situation in a CD pressing plant in Poland (not a joke!), and apparently the boys are posting it out today, so expect a review shortly....
Control Out,
Flynny
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