Music Review: Cold War Kids - Robbers and Cowards - Page 2

"Hair Down" is another interpersonal bathetic song, accompanied by a rattle and a hum. The song is almost naked, the singer's voice rising above the minimalistic chords. This song is about 'conversations that went on terrible paths', and the colors of memory, remembering the way we all felt growing up, when 'we were still just babies/dreaming of the sixties/.../dressing up in rags with our wallets full'. This juxtaposition of post-modern consumerism with the idealism of the Cold War years is immediately contrasted with the barrenness of modern inner lives, when 'our pockets are shallow/our quart running low'. The music comes to the foreground in the final notes of the song, overpowering the insight that 'true love it waits', related to the second theme of the song, and indeed the album - the space between two people who have lived together almost all their lives.

"Passing The Hat" goes deeper in Cold War waters, with a representative of the masses filching from the 'offering hat', perhaps as his just rewards while 'sweat from my brow drips to my shaking knees'. He is especially suited to comment on the souring of the American Dream, being a hard-working immigrant from the 'sweet sweet O Baltic Sea', across the Iron Curtain, or perhaps one leaving the golden shores and demanding 'a small sacrifice to benefit one man's journey away from America's seas'.

"Saint John" is a very dark song about 'old st. john on death row' and 'all the white boys in the stay-pressed slacks'. The 'white boys' are 'home for the summer' and are 'staying out late, getting rowdy at the bar'. Things go wrong when they mess with a young girl coming home 'with a clerk dress on'. This is noticed by the singer, who realizes 'that girl was my sister'. He throws a brick at the 'tallest boys face', and 'he would never move again'. There nothing very deep about this song, but like a Stephen King novel, the characters and images linger  as the song drifts away.

"Robbers", the title track is a critique of urban culture, where "we  need protection from street thugs/who clip the tires/and rip the doors off rugs/and cowards". This life is ' it's not easy, you see/don't think I don't know sympathy/ my victims in my shadow /starin' back at me'. The chords are gentle and minimalist, ending with a fade-to-black effect.

"Hospital Beds" is an uptempo number about lying 'in bed at the hospital' and how we don't choose who's lying across from us, 'sharing hospital/joy and misery'. We share stories 'of how you ended up here', and take in all the 'nurses fussing/doctors on tour/somewhere in India'. I especially liked the chord arrag

Article Author: Aaman Lamba

Aaman Lamba is a Blogcritics editor, as well as the Publisher of Desicritics.org, a Blogcritics network site covering media, politics, culture, sports and more with a global South Asian focus

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