Review: Loyalty to Loyalty

So the Cold War Kids have come out with a new record, and it's about bloody time that I took a stab at reviewing it. 

My first introduction to the Cold War Kids came via Tokyo Police Club when they played a show together at Zaphod's in Ottawa last summer.  While everybody was riding the TPC bandwagon, I was much more impressed by the subtle but infectious show that Cold War Kids put on.  In fact, it is safe to say that I was completely blown away by them.  It was the first time in a long time that a band I'd not really heard of was able to completely blow me away at a live show.  I spent weeks listening to their album Robbers and Cowards.  Audible treats such as a Saint John, and others echoed through my brain for months afterward.  So it should come as no surprise that when it was announced they had a new album coming out I was almost jumping for joy in this tiny hovel in Kentish Town.  I just about burst at the seams when it was further announced that they are playing a show in London (this week), and we managed to get tickets.

It was rapidly decided that we needed to take a listen to the new album so that we could sing along with familiarity at the upcoming gig.  So we bought Loyalty to Loyalty, and I have to say, I'm not impressed.  That is not to say that there isn't some very fine musicianship on this record.  In fact, it is safe to say that should this album have been released instead of Robbers and Cowards, I would have been equally blown away.  What is unfortunate, is that Cold War Kids don't seem to have grown at all musically since their full-length debut.  The songwriting, the guitar sounds, the feeling that you're sitting somewhere in the Mississippi delta listening to an old juke box play out its little known records, is all here, exactly as it was on the first album. 

So really what I'm trying to say is that if you buy Loyalty to Loyalty expecting something new and exciting from Cold War Kids, you will be disappointed.  If you buy it hoping for some more Robbers and Cowards, you will be overjoyed with what you hear.  

Photo:  Main Square in Bath, England.

Comments

[Michelle]

I wasn't expecting them to change their sound too much, but I'd say that Loyalty to Loyalty has a more subtle sound (in a good way) than R & C, which has a more brash/in your face quality.

Looking forward to seeing how they translate the two albums into a live show.