Yours Truly, Angry Mob

A prototype of a modern rock stars

We live in the age of the global music crisis. Masses of young and adult bands accessible for an average listener grow day after day but they still can’t offer new stars as well as any general outlook for music development. Those times when bands and separate musicians could achieve global popularity in one or two years are passing away. All that stories of rock and pop scene founders look like fairy tales nowadays. Unachievable starry status of veterans grows less tangible and accessible for those musicians who fight for their piece of fame today. And though the stories of fast rise are not a rare thing to hear in our times, they still cannot be equal with success that the bands could win only 10 years ago. British pop rockers Kaiser Chief are perfect example proving this situation. Their debut album Employment sold something about three million copies all over the world, and this is a really good result in measures of any time. In 2006 the band managed to win in three nominations of Brit Awards living behind such rivals as Franz Ferdinand, Coldplay and even Oasis. In one word, the fortune has offered 30-years-old Ricky Wilson and his team a big chance to taste all the amenities of starry life and Kaiser Chiefs, of course, didn’t reject it.

Everything for a new breakthrough

In this year Kaiser Chiefs decided to repeat their recent success with the help of a new record Yours Truly, Angry Mob. Wheel’s re-inventing is not a necessary thing to bother yourself with, so the album is seasoned with the same air as the debut, that means Yours Truly, Angry Mob is a classic Britpop album composed of radio friendly and sufficiently catchy tunes that hide socially subversive and insidious lyrics under a positive sonic mask. Everything was done for a new breakthrough. The album has a pop rock hit Ruby – mid tempo song with a catchy chorus that easily sticks to your mind. And it has a strong title track The Angry Mob, which perfectly does for sing along with the audience during a concert. There is also a great ballad Love Is Not A Competition (But I’m Winning), which is made in the best traditions of British rock of a last decade, and a whole set of songs interesting enough to make this album a good deal (for example a rollicking Thank You Very Much or an acoustically based I Can Do It Without You). As concerns the sound – Yours Truly, Angry Mob turned out to be more saturated and tense than its predecessor. The band has shifted aside from an indie oriented sounding of their first record in a direction of classic British rock sound of 90’s, and this also adds bonuses to the entire picture. Yet, despite a whole set of good factors there is one “but”.

Kaiser Chiefs sound tired

The album looks pretty successful at a first glance but there is one objection capable to spoil the whole thing. Strange as it may seem Kaiser Chiefs sound tired and even apathetic, just like the success or rather the way they walked to achieve it has exhausted them completely. An ardour and recklessness of the first album has turned into bitterness, cynicism and decadence feeling. As Ricky Wilson said on one of these songs: “Everything Is Average Nowadays”. And while tunes and general sounding still maintain a positive impression Wilson’s voice betrays the whole truth. And this is where the tragedy of the aforementioned crisis lies. The thoroughly ploughed up fields of rock music give only sprouts of hope to tired ploughmen who try to wring the last from the exhausted soil instead of exploring new lands. A problem of overpopulation has finally reached the music. Having grown accessible to everyone its magic has scattered across thousands of performers giving each one only a tiny part of its power. Yours Truly, Angry Mob is a good album, it has everything that success requires, even its lyrical bitterness may become a catchy feature, but the album can hardly offer something new, as well as it will hardly make the star of Kaiser Chiefs shine brighter. If you like britpop and you’re ready to meal this product under any dressing than this album was recorded exactly for you.