The Kooks: Inside In/Inside Out

One of the things I love about London is that there are these smallish CD/record shops to trawl through the CDs/records and spend hours in. Loads of them shops along Berwick Street, and Nottinghill Gate. Shop hopping? You bet, it’s the only kind that I’d let myself on about anyway.

The other thing I love about London is with every afternoon you spend trawling in these shops, your head just swells to the size of an Einstein, or at least when it comes the knowledge of the latest sounds and the latest bands that is. I especially love rummaging through the bargain basements and finding singles/EPs by some obscure sounding band I think to myself, hmm.. I like that name and so that’s bought. Although usually it’s because I’ve read about the band in the NME (shit but it is the only one left after MM got pulled in 1998) or the record label is rough trade or 4AD or something trusty. It doesn’t really matter cuz each single/EP is something like 50p or a squid. Should it turn out to be some pop shite of a CD, you got coasters.

Before you know it, you’ve become quite the expert in sussing out really, really good singles/EPs. It takes you by surprise in a nice way. One, you feel like you’re actually good at something for once. Two, that makes you feel good about yourself for once. Three, it gets you respect. Your indie friends get impressed after the bands you name checked 12 months ago become mega 12 months later. You become a guru to a few of them and can do no wrong (especially if you buy them a couple of beers). It’s an awesome feeling.

Four, the value of the cheapo singles/EPs you paid peanuts for appreciate like pigs flying. Muse’s 2nd EP (on the Dangerous label) went up from 1 pound in 1998 to 70 pounds on ebay in 2000. The Music’s first EP went up 40 times within 4 months. And if I had only picked up Coldplay’s first EP in 1998 for 50 p (I kid you not!! In Steve’s Sounds) – but oh well I guess I did not like the name Coldplay.

AND AS USUAL. I digress. Yeah. Ok. Get to album review.

The Kooks have a debut album. (They are hence not a new band, strictly speaking. It takes a good while of gigging in small venues around the country and a couple of single/EP releases before an album gets released. These Brighton lads have released 3 singles prior to the album I fink.) It’s a sparkling debut even if I’ve read some unsparkling reviews of it. I suspect it’s because it sounds like the Futureheads or the Arctic Monkeys. Oh well, the inevitable comparisons I guess.

“Seaside” is the opening track and is an unusual opening to the rest of the album just because its stripped down acoustica doesn’t sit with the general punky-rest of the album, but it’s a lovely way to set the scene. Luke Pritchard’s got one of those uncompromisingly gritty vocals and it stays with you. I read that he went out with Katie Melua. What was that about? My favourite track right now is “She Moves In Her Own Way”, it’s strum-along, sing-along and – very catchy, I might even add – popish, but I like. In the same vein, “Ooh La”. “Eddie’s Gun” and “If Only” make me feel like getting up and prance about, they’re pretty energetic songs yeah. The songs are not new to their genre but really if you do the genre well you do good. Well done kiddos (that’s what you are init?).

It’s been awhile since I name checked a band that’s not big yet but has the potential. The Kooks. Do check them out. 7/10.


Listening to: nothing!