Monday, January 19, 2009

Inside In/ Inside Out

I have a friend that lives in England who reads my posts and she recommended that since I’ve covered so many of the old English standbys that I should do some more current English bands.
She gave me the name of a band, The Kooks, and I listened to their album, Inside In/ Inside Out, was the bands debut album released in January of 2006 and has since sold around 2,000,000 units around the world.
I liked that I could hear both the indie influences in their upbeat numbers but and strange lyrics. But it was really comforting for me, someone who appreciates a good guitar solo, to hear the occasion riff on the electric guitar. It made the album feel much more familiar to me and the music more appealing. That isn’t to say that the music is unappealing to begin with: in fact, The Kooks have succeeded in writing, particularly on this album, many good numbers.
Even though I listen to a number of old English bands, I sometimes have trouble hearing their English accents come out in their singing. I don’t know why, but The Kooks have a much more distinguishable singing style and they sound much less like an American band than some of their predecessors.
Among the electric guitars and fast chord progressions, there are some slower acoustic songs, the best of which, I think, is Seaside. These acoustic numbers balance the album well by lightening up what seems to be a strong, primarily electric tone.
To be honest, for the most part, I had absolutely no idea what the lyrics were. I don’t have a particular problem with this because I focus primarily on instrumentation. But for those of you who can’t listen to a song without singing along, I suggest you work on your English accent and look up the lyrics because you’ll be hard pressed to figure them out yourself.
Generally I think the Kooks appeal to an audience with a slightly more refined taste in music however I still recommend giving them a try, as listening to English music never hurt anyone.

No comments: