Send "Kasabian " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Sputnikmusic |
 With the implosion of Oasis and The Libertines, it is reassuring to know that one English quartet is still around to brighten up our day with their self-promotion. I mean, why should anyone wait for others to hype their band, when they could do it themselves? Over the course of their decade long existence, Kasabian have apparently saved rock’n’roll, saved dance music and even saved English music in general. They have done so by releasing the greatest album ever... Before superseding it with their own follow-up. Loved by many, and hated by many, many more, the group’s boasting too often masks their talent, since their best work is often a refreshing, genre-bending combination of psychedelic electro-rock. Unfortunately, all these characteristics have previously resulted in over-ambitious experimentation clogging their releases with filler, and leading to the label of being a singles band... And when their fourth LP ‘Velociraptor!’ opens with the striking of a giant gong and some trumpets, it is difficult to think that much has changed in the world of Kasabian. I think we are supposed to bow down and hail our saviors once more! What comes next however is something approaching restraint; a word not usually associated with Kasabian. More than anything, what the album's first three tracks lay the foundation for, is a concerted focus on melody. ‘Velociraptor!’ is more Beatles than Oasis, with retro 60s harmonies being so prevalent that you can almost see the black & white video of a future single having the band in mop-tops mocking the famous Liverpudlians. “Lucy in the sky” is even quoted on ‘La Fee Verte’, a tune where the quartet’s psychedelic leanings run rampant. Of course, this is Kasabian and experimentation is bound to exist. This time around, they at least attempt to integrate a sense of cohesion with many tracks incorporating strings, and even more displaying Eastern flourishes. In fact, so common are the latter, that you half expect Omar Sharif to make a cameo appearance! As per usual, the results are mixed, with the trippy Arabian stomp of six minute centrepiece ‘Acid Turkish Bath’ likely to be most divisive. While the spotlight on melody is value-adding, it does come at a cost as the album progresses through its 51 minute duration. Namely, that it is not the strength of lead vocalist Tom Meighan, whose cocksure drawl is better suited to the band’s trademark energy which has been mostly sapped here. This results in ‘Velociraptor!’ occasionally falling too close to mid-tempo indifference; another word not usually associated with Kasabian. The glitchy electronica of lead single ‘Switchblade Smiles’ comes closest to recalling the band’s debut LP, but feels out of place and only makes you want to revisit ‘Reason Is Treason’. Ditto for the effective synth line of the almost new-wave like ‘I Hear Voices’, while the title track is the most energetic - and somehow likeable - cut in spite of how nonsensical it is. Also as per usual, Kasabian do strike gold at least once, with ‘Re-Wired’ melding their varying influences into an appealing tune that has energy, swagger and the type of catchiness that will infiltrate your mind. Conversely, closer ‘Neon Noon’ attempts something similar in a slow-burning package, but only succeeds in putting listeners to sleep....full text |
| Guardian |
| Velociraptor! is not even out, yet at the time of writing it is the bookies' 7-1 favourite to win next year's Mercury. The Leicester rock band have just added a second night at London's O2 in December after the first sold out. The feeling is growing that, having sold about 1 million copies of their Mercury-nominated last album, West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum, Kasabian have stepped on the escalator to rock's penthouse suite. Buy it from Buy the CD Talking of penthouses, a recent magazine cover found the band's frontmen, singer Tom Meighan and songwriting guitarist Serge Pizzorno, book-ended by two naked women. To their credit, neither Pizzorno (wolf in thrall to the 60s) nor Meighan (excitable about Monster Munch) look entirely comfortable with the dollybird cliche, even as their music makes full use of other rock truisms. They remain a mash-up of Primal Scream, Happy Mondays and, of course, Oasis; one labouring under the delusion of being a little bit experimental. This is a band who cannot outrun the shadow of the Gallaghers. "Man of Simple Pleasures" starts out intriguingly enough with the sound of a typewriter and a lurch of tango. These two pleasant surprises are echoed by alluring little touches elsewhere in the interstices of Velociraptor! – the gong and brass that open the album, and the meowing muezzin at the end of "Days Are Forgotten", one of the album's stronger punts overall. Soon, though, "Man…" unravels into an Oasis singalong. It's a shame, because when Meighan croons, "For all my life/I've been taken for a fool", he momentarily abandons that toddler-on-a-football-terrace bawl that just has too much of the Liams about it to make Kasabian a stand-alone act. The mechanics of momentum are hard to account for at the best of times. But this bet that Velociraptor! will make Kasabian a bigger act in a year's time is not one based solely on their own talents. Velociraptor! is by no means dreadful. It is named for an excellent dinosaur, and boasts an endearingly superfluous exclamation mark. It is improved in no small part by former hip-hop producer Dan the Automator, who also worked on West Ryder. Kasabian's slouching club-rock credentials have been righted somewhat by tunes such as "Switchblade Smiles", which features a farty bassline and stomping drums. "Re-wired", meanwhile, is an out-and-out pop song with a disco beat, while "I Hear Voices" boasts 80s keyboard lines and burbling bass. Shame, then, that Meighan doesn't have the versatility to make any of these songs sexy. Too often, he just brays out Pizzorno's words...full text |
| Clashmusic |
| Blustering with faux swagger Kasabian re-enter our lives from stage right. And it’s reassuring to find them still inhabiting the same ramped-up indie rock that drips with drama as they singularly focus on living the rock ‘n’ roll celluloid dream. ‘Velociraptor!’ is their fourth album and sees them knowingly hopping about like well-drilled musical magpies. As a band they remain obsessed with rock’s canon and inevitably we find them firing out songs that arc beneath the shadows of the Stones, Beatles, Primal Scream and, er, The Ting Tings! But don’t be deterred, since these eleven tracks comprise a very entertaining album. Tom and Serge have become experts at abducting attention, and in the same way one suspends their belief to fully enjoy a play or a farfetched film, if you play along with ‘Velociraptor!’ then you’ll have a fine time. And there’s even some fairly new moments for the lads: ‘I Hear Voices’ and ‘Neon Noon’ discovers some cheeky krautrock synth work, which propels them to shed the spectre of their idols for a few scintillating minutes. In critique though, after five listens the stage sets begin to look a bit shabby. If this happens then just try and forget that the title track sounds like the overplayed Ting Tings anthem (or at best a lost Primal Scream single from ‘Riot City Blues’), that ‘La Fée Verte’ is so obsessed with The Beatles they actually quote Lennon, and that ‘Switchblade Smiles’ might be the same block rocking beats that The Chemical Brothers surfed Tim Burgess on nearly two decades ago. And for the full popcorn experience, maybe overlook ‘A Man Of Simple Pleasures’, which like the lunar Richard Ashcroft performing a Doors whisky pastiche. For more seasoned ears ‘Velociraptor!’ may be too mired in its obvious references. We ask: can you hear your children singing these songs in twenty years’ time like we chorused the Stones’ ‘Paint It Black’ back to our own parents? Probably not, but that shouldn’t stop the party. If you love Kasabian you might think ‘Velociraptor!’ is a 9/10 album, but for the rest of us it’s a salt-seasoned, Spielberg-sponsored 7/10....full text |
Kasabian lyrics
|
| ||||||||||||||||
