Cold War Kids  

Loyalty to Loyalty

Downtown Records

 
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In the slow-burning opener “Against Privacy”, Nathan Willett declares the Cold War Kids’ manifesto: stark-naked simplicity invested with emotion, energy, and maybe a little bit of comic self-deprecation. He announces, proudly, “We don’t gamble/we don’t play the stock exchange”, and, yes, that’s exactly what CWK do: they play it safe, making minimalist but energetic embellishments to the most basic bass-line, adding to the structure only to the point where it makes the change from beat to song. The result – at its best – is a kind of pop that is heavy but to the point, and about as catchy as the Red Scare was to capitalist paranoiacs (i.e. very catchy). At its worst, the result is a bunch of songs that fall flat, making Willett’s declarative voice sound like it should be in the background of a Clap Your Hands Say Yeah song.

Loyalty to Loyalty, CWK’s sophomore album, displays once again the effectiveness of this formula, and the band’s ability to (at least occasionally) execute it in grand style. However, none of these songs are as cabaret-influenced, as exhilaratingly simple, or as energetically sung as most tracks from their debut. Loyalty lacks the retro “St. John” or the surprising fist-pump of “Hang Me Up To Dry” from their last album, but it does present some good innovations. “Relief” has CWK offering a more technological sound, which is quietly catchy, especially given the sudden melodic intonations Willett provides in the chorus.

And, indeed, what can be said for this album is that it is consistent and perfectly packed with Willett’s fascinatingly off-kilter, shouty vocals. “Something Is Not Right With Me”, the album’s first single, is probably the least lyrically inventive song on the album, but, thanks to Willett’s odd vocals, it becomes a decorated, head-bopping jam about subtle insanity. Only “Avalanche in B” really fails to show this band’s talent, sounding instead like a drunken pianist’s final ballad. Although Loyalty certainly isn’t a sophomore slump, hopefully CWK will meld their new discoveries with their old raw power-piano sound in their next oeuvre.

–Jacob Carroll