A Bright Future For The Kaiser Chiefs!

Hotxpress September 22, 2011
  • High Notes
  • Low Notes

The Future is Medieval (Universal)

In a nutshell: Following a three-year hiatus, the English post-punk favourite returns with a fourth album, completely exorcising the frantic, catchy side that the Kaiser Chiefs is known for.

High notes: The aptly named ‘Little Shocks’ opens with a flurry of electronic white noise before settling into a mid-tempo electro-rock fuzz, both of which are rather uncanny for the band. But once you get through the initial ‘shock’, there is much to be appreciated with the new Chiefs.

Low notes: Well, nothing here is quite as catchy as ‘Ruby’, for one. In fact, there’s almost nothing here that even slightly resembles that fist-in-your-face side they used to front.

Verdict: It’s obvious that the band has been trying reinvent itself for some time now. This one sees them expunging the fast-paced, gritty sound of Employment for a more measured approach. The typical thing is to say that they’ve gone Radiohead, but there’s actually still a lot of that Chiefs attitude still in there. Check out our favourite track off the album, ‘Little Shocks.’

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