Velociraptor! So the Kasabians come back on stage: with the impetuousness of an exclamation point. Velociraptor! it is a ferocious beast hidden by the deceptive sensuality of captivating melodies. Denying the now defunct Britpop of Oasis and Suede, far from Coldplay's hit parade do-gooders, the Leicester band delves deeper into tradition, drawing heavily on the rich musical background of their homeland.
The variety of genres they manage to mix in these 11 tracks is truly amazing. West Ryder Paper's Lunatic Asylum, third (equally successful) album, remains a sort of soundtrack majesty, which places our British musicians a cut above most self-styled "indie-rockers", a term with a vague and unjustified meaning inflated.
The initial lament between the trumpets of Let's Roll Just Like We Used To introduces a retro track, perfect for an old spy movie, from the 60s sound to Scott Walker. To be clear: that style to which the British Alex Turner (Arctic Monkeys) and Miles Kane (The Rascals) were inspired for their side project The Last Shadow Puppet.
Days Are Forgotten is one of the most beautiful “radio” singles of 2011. The lack of singability of a monotone verse - but not monotonous for this (a characteristic that Tom Meighan has shown since the beginning) - gives a power to the melodicity of the chorus that manages to excite. A song that appears simple and not too original, but that succeeds in its intent: to take root in our auricles. And it will stay there for a long time, believe me.
The third track is perhaps the only one that is not very effective: GoodbyeKiss, a slow prom dance all acoustic guitars, violins and "sha-la-la only you lose if you don't love me anymore" (I Camaleonti sang) which is not very convincing.
The sudden sophisticated major-minor passages of The Fee Verte they are too blatant a reference to the Beatlesian Strawberry Fields. Sometimes it seems that the British are unable to get rid of the ghost of the four of Liverpool, but the honesty of the quote is appreciated, immediately confirmed by the text (“I see Lucy in the sky tellin 'me I'm high”). At the voice not the usual frontman, but the guitarist Serge Pizzorno, a man in the shadows and perhaps the actual leader of the band being the author of almost all the songs.
After having plunged into a yellow submarine at the end of the hymn to the "green fairy" (the absinthe one), we quickly rise to the surface with the violence of Velociraptors!, a modern dance-rock song, which fills with adrenaline to such an extent that it was chosen as the main title of the FIFA2012 soundtrack (well-known football videogame).
Acid Turkish Bath is the proof of what these guys can create by taking a little here, a little there: drums with bossa nova rhythm, tempo changes, strings that play Arabian scales from a thousand and one nights and recall psychedelic late 60s, when the obligatory goals of an artist were India and synthetic drugs. With a magic they also manage to place another very sang chorus in the pot.
Only 6 minutes pass and the Kasabian machine catapults us into a completely different world. The deeply electronic soul of The Hear Voices it could be defined as an unexpected and very pleasant modern 80's video game chiptune.
With Rewired you are on the safe side. A more classically 70s rock sound track with a captivating funkish guitar line, not without modern synths and a refined finish entrusted to violins. Switch from the twang of Pizzorno's ubiquitous Rickenbacker 481 to Man Of Simple Pleasures, a slow tempo impregnated with sixties, to the techno-rock of Switchblade Smiles, the hypnotic first single from the album, can make you feel rather disoriented if you're used to the monotony of prepackaged pop albums. But that's not the case with our readers, I venture to say. The album doesn't end with the energetic exclamation point we expected. Neon moon it is rather a sort of reprise of the main musical themes of the record (60s vs. electronics). Something quite unexpected comes out of it, a kind of secret and unknown b-side of Moon Safari by Air, kept under wraps until today. The critic Lionel Trilling said “the amateur artist imitates, the professional one steals” and the Kasabians, it must be said, were exceptional “thieves”.
Thumbs up for: Let's Roll Just Like We Used To, Days Are Forgotten, La Fee Verte
Thumbs down for: GoodbyeKiss
KASABIAN - VELOCIRAPTOR!
Produced by: RCA Records/Columbia
TRACKLIST:
1. Let's Roll Just Like We Used To
2. Days Are Forgotten
3. GoodbyeKiss
4. The Fee Verte
5. Velociraptors!
6. Acid Turkish Bath (Shelter From The Storm)
7. The Hear Voices
8. Rewired
9. Man Of Simple Pleasures
10. Switchblade Smiles
11. Neon moon
