7/10 sing when you’re winning.
This time last year was a very, very good time to be in Leicester. Against staggering odds (5000-1 according to some bookies – less likely than finding Elvis alive), Claudio Ranieri and his plucky football team had risen to the very top of the Premiership, defeating giant clubs and generally causing mass hysteria amongst gob-smacked fans who were more used to watching drizzly no score draws.
Jumping quite literally on the bandwagon, Kasabian held a couple of free gigs at the team’s King Power Stadium as part of the ecstatic citywide celebrations. Predictably They went down an absolute storm, thanks in part to the celebratory mood, but also because the Leicester quartet have gotten really damn good at making music that makes you want to mosh. Off the back of the gigs, Tom, Serge & the other two (who ever remembers the drummer or bassist?) dived back into the studio to churn out another collection of guitar-driven psychedelic pub-rock, in-part inspired by their hometown club’s unprecedented success.
A year on, however, and it’s a very different story in the Midlands. In the interim, Leicester City more or less limped through this year’s season to finish a very average twelfth, and by the time the album was actually released, the previous year’s elation had long since dissipated. Not that it really matters though, because For Crying Out Loud is another banger, stuffed full of big, loud, stadium sing-along anthems. Familiar sounding new melodies worm their way into your skull immediately, from stormsome opener ‘Ill Ray’ and the glorious disco stomp of ‘Are You Looking For Action?’ to the instantly toe-tapping “Good Fight” or lead single ‘You’re in Love With a Psycho’.
Whether you’re into the footie-fan-blokey-rock aura or not, there’s no denying that these songs are the sound of joy – simple and uncomplicated little pleasures that will help a few pub-garden beers go down a treat. Considering the current run of awful news from around the globe, that’s no bad thing at all.
Dan Ashcroft
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