Yahoo! Music Album Review

Released on 22/09/08
Label: Mercury

Few new bands endured a more turbulent 2007 than Cold War Kids. No sooner had press and public alike whipped themselves into a fervour over their extraordinary single "Hang Me Up To Dry", than the backlash began and they were accused of pretension, miserablism, a patchy album and - most damning of all, in the eyes of hipsters - Christianity. So there's much to admire in the defiant way that "Loyalty To Loyalty" is so tonally, musically and thematically similar to their debut, only more so. They've stuck to their guns, but improved their aim.

Everything that divided listeners first time round is intensified: the bleak subject matter, the bluesy pacing and, most of all, Nathan Willett's anguished howl. Willett is one of those rare frontmen able to sing from different points of view with utter conviction, inhabiting his role: a method singer. It's his manic intensity that holds the deranged, helter skelter tale of nervous collapse that is "Something Is Not Right With Me" together, while his audible, aching empathy saves the browbeaten woman of "Every Man I Fall For" from total self-pity.

The most valid criticism of Willett is that the bravura of his performances can overshadow his band mates' efforts. A shame, as they have become a formidable outfit, capable of falling into tight formation on the bruisingly paced "Mexican Dogs" or playing with fluid restraint on "Against Privacy", Willett's timely, ambiguous meditation on America's enduring culture wars. Guitarist/percussionist Jonnie Russel, in particular, is as inventive and instinctive as his singer, as demonstrated on the hypnotically complex, coiled rhythms of "Dreams Old Men Dream".

None of which is to say that "Loyalty To Loyalty" is flawless. "Avalanche In B" is drab and ponderous, everything their critics have accused them of, and though "Relief" is audacious lyrically - apparently a heartless address by God to disaster victims - the tune is too subdued to support Willetts' flamboyant vocal. It's also true that the overall bleakness of tone can become oppressive; even the warmest song here, the breezy, saloon swing of "Golden Gate Jumpers", is a story of attempted suicide.

But for all their faults and self indulgences, Cold War Kids are perhaps the only band out there ambitious enough to tackle head-on the contradictions and heartaches of America, past and present, and to do so with this passion and intelligence. For this they are to be admired, deeply.

    by Jaime Gill