After first hearing Coldplay’s A Rush of Blood to the Head, I got the sense that somewhere along the line, someone complimented Chris Martin’s falsetto. Because, by God did he proceed to overuse it. The same must have happened to the Kooks’ Luke Pritchard. I’m not sure who encouraged his voice-cracking-as-singing-style, but he really goes for it on this album, and it’s exceedingly irritating.
Apart from that, the songs on Konk are generally pleasant enough in that mid-tempo, mediocre kind of way. They’re that sort of banal, non-threatening indie that lends itself to background music for Hollyoaks or Gossip Girl. The band is keen to proclaim in interviews that they are intent on writing music that will blow people away, but sadly, there isn’t much on this album that we haven’t heard before.
For the most part, Konk sounds like their debut, Inside In/Inside Out’s, big brother. The sound is quite similar, though perhaps ever so slightly more mature. The musicianship has clearly improved, and a lot of the guitar work is pretty accomplished and interesting. But yet, the songs just come off as a little too neat, a little too polished.
Album openers “See the Sun” and “Always Where I Need To Be” achieve that breezy, summer-y feel that should see the Kooks through the festival season. “Mr. Maker” wants so much to achieve a Kinks or even Blur-style narrative, but it achieves neither. After the horribly repetitive and annoying “Do You Wanna,” the album plods along with more soundtracks to buying tops at the Gap. My ears pricked up a bit at the chorus of “Sway,” possibly because it’s one of the few moments that approaches any hint at passion or genuine feeling. For much of the album, it sounds like the Kooks are striving for a depth of feeling that just isn’t there. Album closer (save secret track, “All Over Town”), “Tick of Time,” at least features a tempo change and loosens up a bit. It reminds of the promise of the Kooks’ debut, which though maybe not as technically accomplished, at least felt like they were aiming at something higher and having fun. From the sound of Konk, I would imagine we can expect much more of the same tedious songs seemingly designed to shift units and barely-legal teenage girls’ underwear.
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