Kaiser Chiefs - Yours Truly, Angry Mob

KAISER CHIEFS
Yours Truly, Angry Mob

Eight seconds. That’s all it takes for Yours Truly, Angry Mob to signpost its intentions. Opening track and current single, Ruby, instantly launches into some trademark “da-da-da-ing” and, before a single minute of the track is complete, we already have our first ridiculously catchy chorus. “Ruby, Ruby, Ruby, Ruby,” yells frontman Ricky Wilson, before the harmonising kicks in. Make no mistake, Kaiser Chiefs are back.

The sophomore album is a notoriously tricky one for many bands, especially following such a phenomenally successful debut, and so Kaiser Chiefs really ought to be commended for Yours Truly, Angry Mob, which retains the high standard set by their previous recording, Employment.

Unsurprisingly, this album hardly represents a massive departure for a band that positively revels in purveying bouncy indie-pop and, pleasingly for fans of the squillion-selling debut long-player, this new offering ticks all of the appropriate boxes. There’s witty lyricism that will make you smile wryly, as well as air-punching choruses, shouty vocals, harmonising and handclaps. However, rather than seeming hackneyed, Kaiser Chiefs sound energetic and effervescent, almost as though they are relieved to finally showcase some new material, having been touring the same old tunes for the past two years.

Indeed, it is also refreshing for us listeners to have some new songs to get our teeth into, having had I Predict A Riot and Oh My God pummelled into our brains for what seems like an eternity. Here, the theme of dystopia and drunken violence is reprised in The Angry Mob, while the pick of the bunch, Thank You Very Much is this year’s I Predict A Riot.

With its post-punk vocals and anthemic chorus, My Kind Of Guy is almost a straightforward, stadium-sized heavy rock track, and Love’s Not A Competition (But I’m Winning) sounds so gloriously 1980s that it comes across as some kind of odd lovechild of Depeche Mode and Spandeau Ballet.

Yours Truly, Angry Mob further suggests that Kaiser Chiefs never got the memo about Britpop being dead, but, if they keep on creating music as fun, witty and likeable as this, then you won’t hear us complaining.