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I think it’s safe to say that most of us know The Kooks from the incredibly catchy 2006 single “She Moves In Her Own Way” that earned them a nomination at the Brit Awards. Now they’re back with their third studio release, “Junk Of The Heart”, and have lost none of the momentum that they picked up earlier in their career. They kick off the album with the sunnily catchy title track whose chorus, “I wanna make you happy/I wanna make you feel alive/Let me make you happy,” instantly draws listeners into the album.
The Kooks aren’t shy, and “Junk Of The Heart” continues boldly, with tracks like “How’d You Like That” and “Rosie” fully taking advantage of the sheer aural power that the band has developed. These tracks are powerful but not overwhelming and give the album its fun, unabashedly poppy character. Track four, “Taking Pictures Of You”, leads off with vocals surprisingly reminiscent of DeVotchKa’s Nick Urata: a bit ethereal, a bit overly emotive, but overall effective.
Unfortunately the next track, “Fuck The World Off”, fails to please and distracts from the upbeat trance that the album had nicely settled into with the first four tracks. However, it leads nicely into the strings-infused “Time Above The Earth”, which again incites a comparison that I never thought I would be making: The Kooks and DeVotchKa. Tracks seven and eight, “Runaway” and “Is It Me”, the album’s first single, channel a bit of The Strokes, with frontman Luke Pritchard even sounding slightly like Julian Casablancas.
The Kooks have created a complete album, which, despite one slight misstep, remains consistent from beginning to end and even shows quite a bit of growth from the British quartet. “Killing Me” is a deep, multi-dimensional track that doesn’t rely on a catchy chorus or other pop gimmicks to incite a few hits of the repeat button. As the album winds down with the upbeat “Eskimo Kiss” and “Mr. Nice Guy”, the latter a bit darker and moodier than the former, The Kooks show that they’re much more than a one-hit wonder, although I will forever remember them by their insistence that “she moves in her own way.”
Stream the album here.
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