IN REVIEW: Cold War Kids - "Hold My Home"

Cold War Kids find themselves entering the twilight of their first decade as a band in a state of limbo. After a debut LP that earned them boatloads of that sweet, sweet indie cred (2006's Robbers & Cowards), a quirky but lifeless follow-up (2008's Loyalty To Loyalty) and a bridge burning mainstream bid (2011's Mine Is Yours), 2013's Little Miss Lonelyhearts seemed to find them stranded in a horribly uninteresting middle ground. Too cerebral to be commercially viable and too scattershot to be cohesive, it left the band in the somewhat perilous position of dying on the fence they were straddling.

Perhaps sensing the gravity of the situation, fifth album Hold My Home is a more focused on tunes than their past few releases. It could be the comfort of recording at their home studio, or increased familiarity with recently added members Joe Plummer and Matthew Schwartz. Whatever the case, it's a cohesive album that sees the group making a conscious effort to craft the best album they can rather than padding out an album around a few good singles.

Indeed, more than a mere few of these songs are capable of doing the trick success-wise, from the swaying and stomping First to the jangly and pulsating Hot Coals to the new wave leaning Hotel Anywhere to the sultry and melodic Go Quietly. It makes for a much more enjoyable album, but won't do them any favours with the hipster set, who have turned their noses up at everything that's followed Robbers & Cowards and won't be satisfied until they go back to that exact sound (and even then, some would inevitably cry derision).

The problem is, Cold War Kids are part of that same society; this is an album where they go for maximum audience impact but can't help alienating them by name checking literary critic Harold Bloom and presenting the thing with a lazy, boring cover that they try to pass off as as highbrow art (and is the video for All This Could Be Yours trying to sell a record or a fragrance?). Which leaves them in the same place they were going in: still shunned by fickle minded hipsters who demand the impossible and still trying to win them back in spite of their ignorance and cruelty, but also longing for acceptance from a public that finds them too impenetrable and arty. They can't have it both ways, but they refuse to let go of either one's hand.

Still, this doesn't make Hold My Home a bad album, just one that I think should have leaned a bit harder one way or the other. I feel like if they could just pick a side and go for it, it would come off a lot more successful than it does here; you'll never fool a hipster into buying a Coldplay record, and you'll never convince Joe Blow to read a thesis on Romanticism. As it stands though, it does better than the last couple albums did at creating a cohesive listening experience for both sides, and is more rewarding the less you think about it.

October 21, 2014 • Downtown/Universal

Highlights First • Hot Coals • Go Quietly