After the success of its debut album Employment the English indie rock band Kaiser Chiefs has become one of the most promising on the world scene. The audience’s expectations went quite justified on its sophomore effort Yours Truly, Angry Mob, with the collective demonstrating a great Britpop sounding and a somewhat calmer attitude. Unfortunately as many critics noted at that time the musicians did not seem to aim at repeating the debut’s success too much, so today they are expected still more than they have done on the second album and most probably the guys realize that well. Claiming that it is not going to follow the beaten way releasing an album once in two years and touring for the rest of time Kaiser Chiefs records the third creation Off With Their Heads already in a year after Yours Truly, Angry Mob. In all likelihood this work will never make a sensation but the guys have made a good leap forward. Off With Their Heads is a confident, moderately cynical and ironic collection of nice compositions combining the elements of Britpop and indie rock proving that Kaiser Chiefs has yet a lot to tell the world and it can do it in a beautiful and spectacular way.
Having started to change its sounding a bit on the previous album Kaiser Chiefs continues to explore the rock opportunities on Off With Their Heads as well. This time around one can trace not only the influence of trends popular in the 1990s but also of even earlier rock’n’roll motifs. The album takes off with killing guitar chords on Spanish Metal, an amazing track combining a sty movie tune with unrestrained riffs. The first single Never Miss A Beat, an example of the band members’ nihilistic views, creates an image of modern young people for whom nothing seems to matter much. Like It Too Much is certainly one of the album highlights: a tough rhythm, excellent piano and Ricky Wilson’s cynical singing have never sounded so fresh and interesting while a danceable and joyful mood of You Want History disguises its complicated and a bit bold lyrics. Good Days Bad Days is remarkable for a genially simple melody whereas another album leader is composition Tomato In The Rain, a surrealistic ballad slightly reminiscent of The Beatles’ late works. A cynical song Half The Truth pleases with Wilson’s wonderfully contagious singing and a relationship complaint Always Happens Like That is refined with back vocals provided by Lily Allen and a humorous chorus. The album closes with a surprising light ballad Remember You're A Girl, different from the rest of the record and demonstrating the good side of Kaiser Chiefs.
Although Kaiser Chiefs has not succeeded in stirring our imagination with Off With Their Heads it has recorded an album that proves to be better than the sophomore effort. We hear more energy and enthusiasm than before both in the musicians’ playing and the front man’s singing. Yes, Off With Their Heads does not stand out that much against other quality indie-albums but this does not prevent it from being among the best of them. There are some memorable tunes here, successful rhymes and unexpected instrumental combinations which is quite enough to say that Kaiser Chiefs’ third album does deserve praise. The guys state to have felt a strong desire to record the new material, and the result is really vivid, stylish and confident even if some of the songs are similar to what you have already heard before a lot of times. Hopefully they will have even more interesting and surprising ideas in future because nowadays it is much more profitable to be different from the others rather than amalgamate with the grey mediocrity and with a beginning so impressive as Kaiser Chiefs has had such an ending would be way too sad.
The Future Is Medieval
Yours Truly, Angry Mob
Employment
Takk 2005
Takk (Icelandic for "thanks") is allegedly Sigur Ros's mainstream album. It has singalong tunes and it even has track names. It is a warmer, more orchestral take on the band's defining sound, and easily their most instantly accessible record to date
