Cold War Kids return with “Behave Yourself”

http://www.coldwarkids.com/news/

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“the last anticipated release of the year”
INITIAL THOUGHTS: The Killers – Day & Age
words: Jamie Milton

Opinion-splitters they may be, but everybody knows when the storm’s due. ‘Day & Age’, aside from the Bob the Builder and Same Difference Christmas releases (which for reference, are something quite special), is the last anticipated release of 2008. November’s been a shoddy, despicable month in all due respect. Guns ‘n Roses, Razorlight, Snow Patrol releasing some truly average albums even for their standards. There may indeed be some hidden gems buried beneath the tripe-blizzard, but they’ll be difficult to save.

So now I entitle you to let out a quick sigh of relief for the third “proper” Killers album. They’ve managed to raise the buzz-o-meter by quite a bit on the merit of ‘Human’ and the excellent EMA performance that came with it, along with the newly unveiled, highlight on the album as it happens, ‘Spaceman’. But don’t think it just stops at ‘Spaceman’. Sure, this track may be the very example of a band reaching their peak in ability to write infectious, memorable melodies, but there’s more to discover in a triumphant yet mysterious record.

‘Human’ is a grower, and it delightfully wakes us up after opener ‘Losing Touch’ grasps our attention in its opening but occasionally drifts off into some nonsense courtesy of Brandon Flowers. That said, musically it’s on par with the other two highlights. Flowers may talk of “inpending doom” and self-doubt on ‘Human’, providing ‘Joyride’ as the solution to anyone’s problems, but all this does is emphasise the confusing state he’s revealed in many interviews.

Talk of faith ‘Losing Touch’ is something that many of us will find hard to relate to and at times it does sound like a record in-human to you, something you’d never dream of making had you been born in the lucky tree before turning to a successful rock career. But where at times you believe it’ll doze off into self-obsession and lack of decisive thought, you can still associate everyday life with the sort of ambition that the band are revealing to us in shameless, full-frontal nudity. ‘This Is Your Life’ is another example of fantastic melodies merging into something outstanding and despite the pace being adjusted downwards in the latter half of the album, ‘Neon Tiger’ is just one example of the tactic working.

So reading all this above you can obviously tell which side I’m on when it come to the Killers debate. But although this is no ‘Hot Fuss’, their debut was patchy in places and this is as consistent as it gets.

PLAY: The Killers – Spaceman
PLAY: The Killers – Losing Touch
[Pre-order 'Day & Age']

(disclaimer: for sampling purposes only, request if you want tracks taken down)

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VIDEO OF THE WEEK: Radiohead – Go Slowly (Live at Santa Barbara)
words: Jamie Milton

Last night Radiohead concluded their American tour and celebrated in style. Through the method of one of their many webcasts, fans at home who missed out on, as I’m told, highly-sorted tickets, still got to enjoy the concert on radiohead.tv. For our UK readers though, if you missed it, it was at 3AM, so that’s probably why and for those UK readers who managed to see it, sleep tight tonight.

It was more than a simple webcast though. You got very little impression of the audience and how the songs were going down (no doubt, a treat…), with full camera fixation on the band members and full microphone receivers doing the same duty. There were some precious moments to be seen in a set-list than many a Radiohead fan would dribble over, but rarity (‘In Rainbows’ Disc 2 favourite) ‘Go Slowly’ sounded absolutely stunning.

Click on the link to the video below and browse about to find more of the concert, this was our pick out of the bunch that were posted today,

RADIOHEAD – GO SLOWLY

PLAY: Radiohead – Go Slowly

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Album: Kids In Glass Houses – Smart Casual
words: Charlie Ralph

Pop-punk is a genre often criticised by music reviewers. It is usually deemed simple, bland, repetitive nonsense. Most of the time they’re right, there are hundreds of dull pop-punk bands out there at the moment, but Kids In Glass Houses ain’t one of them.
This welsh five-piece don’t exactly make music for your average 40-something IT manager, no, that’s what James Blunt stays around for.

The band’s debut album Smart Casual is the soundtrack to teenagers doing what they do, either lounging around on a beach in summer or late night parties and drinking sessions, the band make music that is perfect for the ideal teenage lifestyle. Despite this, they still pull off the album with a decent dose of musical credibility thrown into the mix, and that makes a fine cocktail of catchy summer fun.

Some of the songs can be a bit down-tempo and pointless, such as ‘Lovely Bones’ and album low point, ‘Pillow Talk’. But apart from these occasional dips this is definitely the essential summer album of 2008, and if these boys keep making songs like ‘Easy Tiger’ and ‘Raise Hell’, then you can bet this isn’t going to be the last you hear of these Welsh funsters.

9

PLAY: Kids In Glass Houses – Fisticuffs

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