Written in just six weeks, ‘For Crying Out Loud’ is Kasabian’s sixth studio effort and one that sees songwriter Serge Pizzorno embracing his love of the guitar again.
And, following a year that found Pizzorno getting married, headlining Glastonbury and watching his beloved Leicester City lift the Premier League title at odds of 5000-1, we also have Kasabian’s most personal record to date. It even contains their first love song, Put Your Life On It, a number about Pizzorno’s wife that develops into an anthem in a similar manner to the Beatles’ Hey Jude.
The electronic edge to the band’s sound has been almost entirely jettisoned, though, signalling a move away from an element of their much-loved early persona that seemed so vital on their 2004 debut.
But that’s perhaps been on the cards since Chris Karloff’s departure in 2006 and there’s but an echo left these days. The eight-minute behemoth Are You Looking For Action?, for example, is a timely dance-haze detour from the rest of the album here.
Now to address the lyrics. Nick Cave and the late Leonard Cohen would be choking at the likes of “licking on your 99” and “you won’t catch me in my shorts”, while others will be wondering who Axel Foley is and if “shark infested skies” point to another dreadful Sharknado movie.
But, despite its fair share of shortcomings, ‘For Crying Out Loud’ is far from a terrible album. The lead single, You’re In Love With A Psycho, may seem unrewarding at first, but it’s a stayer in the same vein as Where Did All The Love Go? from ‘West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum’.
The stuttering chorus of Good Fight is another highlight despite being one of a handful of cuts that sound more likely to end up as ring introductions for boxers than on the football terraces. Others that wouldn’t sound out of place on a Rocky soundtrack include the lad rock – in this case a genuinely accurate tag which hasn’t always been the case with Kasabian – of Twentyfourseven and the largely toe-curling, brass-introduced Comeback Kid.
Opener Ill Ray (The King), meanwhile, is perhaps current day Kasabian in a microcosm. With some dreadful, minimalist verses containing pounding percussion and monotone vocals, the song suddenly takes off for an uplifting, anthemic chorus, which is what the band do best. The slower The Party Never Ends is a quiet number that’s as welcome as it is uncharacteristic, though. It proves that the band are capable of more than what they are famous for, but also that there are not enough of these variations to take this album to a higher place.
With plenty of bog-standard Kasabian moments like the enjoyable Wasted and the straight up punk-meets-glam belter Bless This Acid House, fans of their ‘rock for blokes’ won’t be disappointed. Indeed, they’ve done a lot worse.
Kasabian Upcoming Tour Dates are as follows:
Sat July 08 2017 - GLASGOW Green
Tue August 22 2017 - BELFAST Custom House Square Belfast
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