Cold War Kids: Loyalty to Loyalty (Downtown)

By Ben Liew  •  in Review
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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