Kaiser Chiefs have been knocking out chart-aimed New Wave-ish guitar pop since 2004, and while they might have generally given the impression of leaning a bit more towards musical theatre than anything truly heartfelt, it hasn’t stopped them producing more than a few crowd-pleasing tunes over the years, like “Oh My God”, “Ruby” and “I Predict A Riot”.
So it was something of a surprise to learn that their new album was to be co-written and produced by Brian Higgins of pop über-producers Xenomania: a crew with a track record of boosting the careers of Girls Aloud and Little Mix rather than hanging out with guitar-welding herberts. Anyone hoping that this pairing might reveal that Xenomania have discovered a previously unknown love of punky guitar tunes is, however, going to be disappointed. Stay Together, somewhat inevitably, is an over-produced, Euro pop-infused horror that has the feel of a poorly judged Ricky Wilson solo album.
While taking musical risks is usually something to be applauded with bands that have been around for a few years, from the lightweight “We Stay Together” to the big chorus of “Happen In A Heartbeat”, Stay Together feels like a clumsy grab for the money that’s lacking in any finesse. In fact, with the exception of the Divine Comedy-esque “Sunday Morning” and the unnamed funk workout tacked onto the end of the totally anonymous “Still Waiting”, there’s barely any suggestion that Stay Together is the product of a band at all.
Only time will tell whether Stay Together marks a lasting direction for the Kaiser Chiefs or whether they’ll come to view it as a brief bad decision. Though it really is totally unfathomable that they’ve managed to put out such a complete turkey without someone putting the brakes on long before its release date.
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