On "Days Are Forgotten," the band returns to the infectious rave and roll credo that catapulted them to their current stature. Super-sized and anthemic, the song is destined for FM, satellite radio, or another CSI cameo, and with lyrics like “Call me a cliché / How right you are,” the band cheekily knows it.
Seismically, the title track also knowingly replicates the spectre of previous Kasabian singles with its wall of rocky/ravey noise. "Re-wired" comes close, with its sing-along chorus, slurping high hats, and swirling guitars, but veers from stadium and anthem territory into shamelessly delicious disco.
"I Hear Voices," on the other hand, tips its hat back to tracks from their first album, and is the perfect companion to the underrated “Pinch Roller,” “Orange” and “Ovary Stripe.”
In fact, chief songwriter and guitarist Serge Pizzorno and singer Tom Meighan fare better when they focus inward, because the lowlights on Velociraptor! stem from merely replicating their influences. The Beatles-esque "La Fee Verte" starts with a lushness stronger than anywhere else on the album, but becomes tired quickly from its lack of originality and downright narcoleptic “Lucy in the Sky” lyric.
Similarly, the unfortunately titled "Acid Turkish Bath (Shelter from the Storm)" wraps itself in Zeppelin-esque cashmere, but then unravels into insipid Kula Shaker territory--a band I was happier never to think about again.
Thankfully, these are the only shaky steps in an otherwise sure (club) footed album.
Velociraptor! closes with the one-two punch of the teaser single "Switchblade Smiles" and its pugilistic beats, which are then deftly counterbalanced by the drifting ambience of "Neon Noon," the track that might be the most approachable and emotive “slow” song the band has ever written. It's a curious and further forward-looking way of bringing closure to a curious and forward-looking album.
--Chris "Gutter" Rose
Article comments
1 - Mark R
The Kinks have been a major band in America since 1965, they sold out Madison Square Garden several times, had numerous Top Twenty hits and albums and were inducted into the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame in 1990. The number of important American artists they influenced is endless, their music is still used for high-profile adverts, films and TV shows. To say they never found a foothold in America is absurd.
2 - Arthur
The Kinks had many long stretches of irrelevance in the USA: they were perceived as "too British" when they were doing classics like Arthur. They certainly never attained the status of peers like the Stones, Beatles, and even The Who in America. Not that this is really all that central to the review in question -- but nevertheless.