IN REVIEW: Kasabian - "For Crying Out Loud"

In recent years, UK hit makers Kasabian have been less concerned about the grandness of their artistic statements and more about, well, making hits; while they do have at least a couple of very good records in their discography (their 2004 debut and 2011's Velociraptor!, for my money), this is increasingly a band building a reputation as a singles act. There's certainly nothing wrong with that, and if the resulting legacy of their career boils down to a greatest hits playlist, you can be sure it'll be a formidable batch of tunes.

For Crying Out Loud does them no favours from the aesthetic standpoint, with that album cover that looks like it was created in a fevered five minute MS Paint session, so if their sixth record is to be a success it will be on the strength of the songs by necessity. In that respect, For Crying Out Loud may be the most energetic album they've hobbled together since their debut. It's a bright, fun record, filled to the brim with shiny hooks, slinky rhythms and arena-ready bombast. They waste no time getting down to it with opener Ill Ray (The King), a salvo that takes cues from Bloc Party and Arctic Monkeys in pretty much equal measure; it's a stadium-sized can't miss. Twentyfourseven and Bless This Acid House find them in full rock mode, riffing and slashing their way through a pair of the most muscular tracks they've put to tape. Comeback Kid brings in the horn section to create a swaggering, orchestral garage rocker. Then, there's Are You Looking For Action?, a sweaty, multi-faceted  epic of Stone Roses proportions. Throw in some of their most accessible tunes (You're in Love With a Psycho, Wasted, Put Your Life On It) and you've got Kasabian at their star-reaching, chameleon-like best.

On paper, then, it's the most exciting Kasabian record in over a decade, full of variety and big hooks, guaranteed to make their live sets all the more thrilling. In execution, For Crying Out Loud can't help but let a few filler tracks in (The Party Never Ends and All Through the Night stick out like a couple of morose sore thumbs compared to the songs that surround them), and a couple of the sonic experiments come off as a bit half-baked (Sixteen Blocks sounds like something The Black Keys might have left off their underwhelming Turn Blue record). Some of the lyrics, as per tradition, veer between absurd and laughably nonsensical ("jibber jabber at the bargain booze"?) but, as established, sometimes this band is more about the music than the message.

If you've stuck with Kasabian since Club Foot, then these shortcomings won't come as a shock, and a few bum tracks are pretty much par for the course at this point. Still, the good songs here are very good, and overall For Crying Out Loud is a more pleasant experience than their previous effort, the scattershot and sort of vapid 48:13. More importantly, it packs at least five recent/current/pending hit singles (in the UK only, of course, because North America has long ignored most British modern rock bands not named Arctic Monkeys or Royal Blood). So, while it won't make anyone take them seriously as album artists, For Crying Out Loud has enough substance and style to keep them well worth following.

May 5, 2017 • Sony UK
Highlights Ill Ray (The King) • Bless This Acid House • Put Your Life On It