By Kaiser Chiefs have landed with their sixth studio album, ‘Stay Together’ being released in the UK two days ago, and I think it’s fair to say that the Yorkshire band have left behind the established ‘attitude rock’ that became renowned for in the latter part of the 00’s with the likes of “Every Day I Love You Less and Less” and “Never Miss a Beat”.
The title track “We Stay Together” is a tribute to Kaiser Chief’s change in style. Ricky Wilson’s vocals, excluding the chorus, have a melancholic/alternative tone that is unfamiliar to the Chiefs’ usual style. Combine this with the funk-like rhythmic backing guitar, the Kaiser Chiefs certainly have discovered a new sound that could send them high in the UK charts, and certainly in the minds of Kaiser Chief lovers.
The previously ‘Parva’ are still keen on a finishing guitar solo, bringing back memories of the single “Heat Dies Down” from their second studio album, “Yours Truly, Angry Mob”. The new single “Good Clean Fun” does this well, with a greater focus on the instrumentals in the introduction, with an almost psychedelic echo effect to Nick Baines’ synthesizer, and a closing lick from Andrew White’s lead guitar that makes a pleasing finishing fade to the track.
A lot has changed since the days the Kaiser Chiefs were writing and performing songs about crime, violence, dodgy tabloid papers and other controversy. But it must be said that It is admirable what Kaiser Chiefs have done in-line with modern music, as “Hole In My Soul” makes apparent.
I can’t help but hear Chris Martin’s vocals and even Coldplay’s backing when listening to this song. Lyrically, it makes sense. With the subject of relationships clearly the main focus, as the chorus (“There’s a hole in my soul/That can only be filled by you again”). On top of this, the whole backing of the instrumentals has the whole atmospheric and party, feel-good air to it that can be compared to, more or less, the whole of Coldplay’s latest album – A Head Full Of Dreams.
As an enthusiast for real rock music, it is hard for me to understand what has changed since Kaiser Chief’s 2014 album “Education, Education, Education & War”, where there is still that dominance of the bass and lead guitar, and Wilson’s vocals are at that loud and passionate acceptable level you come to expect from rock band’s lead singers.
Despite this slight disapproval, the album on the whole, is in a way, a surprisingly enjoyable deviation from the old Kaiser Chiefs, and given the current state of pop rock, there is undoubtedly a market out there, and the Chiefs have targeted it.
