Cold War Kids: Loyalty to Loyalty (Downtown)

By Ben Liew  •  30 Nov 2008 in Review

Thirsty for JUICE content? Quench your cravings on our Instagram, TikTok and WhatsApp

Cold War Kids are the children of the lost revolution, and had they born half a century ago, they would probably be chilling with Hendrix and Lennon. Their loss. Our gain. Loyalty to Loyalty is the SoCal quartet’s follow up to their 2006 debut Robbers & Cowards. Not be as upfront as its predecessor and oft times its obtuse jazzy explorations remind of some backalley excursion into Broadway territory, nevertheless the indie-gospel rockers deepen (rather than expand) their sound here; opener ‘Against Privacy’, is a dirge like number with open dialogue that erupts mid-way into a noisy guitar jam. Singer Nathan Willett’s gutter-Robert Plant vocals and Bukowski lyrics are riddled in darkness and the album rides on the hard stuff throughout, from suicidal piano swing (‘Golden Gate Jumpers’) to tribal-rock death of youth (‘Welcome To The Occupation’). Expect the rolling stomps and psychedelic blues shuffles which fill this piano-centric album, to  soon sit proudly between your Velvet Underground and White Stripes records. Unless you alphabetize your record collection of course. BL