Dance-happy rock fails to impress
Dan DaranciangKasabian
Kasabian
RCA Records
For fans of: The Killers, the Happy Mondays, Primal Scream, Radiohead
Grade: C
Final word: A good idea quickly tires on the dancefloor.
Download these tracks: “Club Foot,” “Reason is Treason”
One look at Britain’s Kasabian, with their scruffy hair and tight-fitting jackets, and you’re thinking, “Hello, newest Strokes/Interpol/Franz Ferdinand hopefuls.” Amazingly, though, Kasabian (who took their name from Charles Manson’s getaway driver) mine a retro trend that not many have attempted. While other bands look to the ’70s for garage rock and post-punk influences, Kasabian are content with the so-called “baggy” scene of late-’80s England, when bands like the Happy Mondays and Primal Scream married Ecstasy-fueled guitar rock with dance-floor beats. When they’re good, they’re groovy, with enough cocksure swagger and sweaty-but-stoic cool to keep the party going, but Kasabian just don’t have the mojo to keep it up.
Things are a bit monotonous but still fun during the opening moments of the album. “Club Foot” emerges from a synthy intro into a hard-hitting bass line, and the band follows suit. Kasabian use typical rock instruments-guitar, bass, drums-but then augment them with synthesizers and programming for a trip-hoppy vibe. Lead singer Tom Meighan has an urgent but unoriginal vocal style, and the rest of the band often chimes in with repetitive chants, reinforcing the trancy feel. It’s a potent radio single formula, and at least one commercial has already picked up “Club Foot.”
Only three songs into “Kasabian,” though, and the band starts running out of steam. “I.D.,” “L.S.F.” and “Running Battle” are dull and meandering, sounding more like Radiohead outtakes circa “Amnesiac” than actual songs. The rest of the album is a loose mess, with no solid tracks to anchor it down. The closing cut “U Boat” is another Radiohead rip-off and even segues into a reprise of track three, “Reason is Treason.” Talk about a lack of ideas. It’s a shame, because Kasabian have the look and the attitude to live up to their “future of rock ‘n’ roll” rhetoric. With a few more original ideas, they could really cross the pond in a big way.
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