JOHN EMMS MUSIC REVIEWS

Wake up and listen. The Kooks want you to grow with them.

Sure, they may have tinkered with their sound a bit.

But, whatever way you look at it,  Junk of the Heart is a modern, intelligent pop album that gets better with repeat listens.

If you want to click through your Apple Iphone 5 or jabber away on facebook your not going to “get it”.  Try loading this cd into your vehicle, going for a drive and crank up the volume.

Think LCD Soundsytems’s feel on Drunk Girls mixed with mid period Supergrass and a Brighton pub on Saturday night and you will get an idea of the groove here.

The title track is a relationship song  driven by an  infectious vocal hook. If  given the time of day this track could be a monster North American radio fave.  

How’d You Like That tries a bit too hard to be likeable  pop, but Rosie is strong song born out of a very different groove that could have been mid 70s Kinks material if the Kinks were 25 years old in 2011.

That’s good folks.

Elsewhere the retooling of the band’s sound is killer on “F**k The World Off and the incredible  Badfinger-meets Gaz Coombe’s feel of  Is It Me which asks “”Is it the times were living in”

I say yes.

If you can’t be moved by songs like Killing Me or Mr Nice Guy your on the wrong planet.

The only problem I can see is how the four can pull off some of the more ambitious tracks on this cd in a live context.

Strong work by songwriter/vocalist Luke Pritchard, yet the whole band finds space. Personally, more use of Hugh Harris’ guitar lines would have been nice, but that’s a minor quip.

JOHN EMMS is a veteran music journalist, musician and radio host..Visit John at www.johnemms.com or check out his reverbnation link here  http://www.reverbnation.com/johnemms