You know when someone else has cooked you dinner, it's nice that you don't get to cook for yourself for once. But you forgot to ask what they were making you, you trust that person to make something you like though, they know you very well so why would they ever do that? And when you get the dish the main part of the dish is breaded chicken - they've pulled through, of course they did. So you cut a big chunk of it off and slam it into your mouth doured in sauce of your choice only to have your tastebuds attacked with the taste of fish. Now there's nothing wrong with fish, but it's no chicken. That is what it's like to listen to this album.
There isn't particularly anything wrong with this album, the "Intro" builds up and "Kids" keeps you rising on the rollercoaster due to it's fun nature and the ability to sing along to it - I'm sure it will be a big hit at their future gigs. But the rollercoaster never drops, in fact it slowly declines as you're then thrown into an album that never changes pace, nor does it ever change it sound and if you're in the mod for some Kooks then this will probably tide you over. Frontman Luke Pritchard does his best to try and get his way through this album but despite his changes in tones and his vocal abilities that have improved over the years the album never rises from its slumber.
In many ways it's quite sad because last album 'Alive' seemed to point to the future for The Kooks as they took in aspects of dance music and hip hop beats to create power anthems that would fill the arena on their future tours - however it wasn't quite executed perfectly and people didn't really vibe with it. But that's lead them down a path that has tried to recapture the sound of Konk, which is actually one of my favourite Kooks albums but we don't need two of them do we.
"Chicken Bone" though. How was that song ever allowed to be made?
3/10