Stars Need Not Be Human

A couple of ingeniously-handled musical instruments star in Yours Truly, Angry Mob, an energetic sophomore effort by Brit-pop’s Kaiser Chiefs. A rollicking guitar/synthesizer party backs up, responds to and occasionally spars with the vocals of singer Ricky Wilson. Rarely have instruments sounded so human, so alive and so indomitable in spirit.Nearly every intro and chorus kicks off with a magnificent backdraft of melody. In “Everything is Average,” Andrew White’s gleeful guitars wail along with the refrain, dropping out only to let Nick Baines’ even more gleeful keys have a go. In radio hit “Ruby,” choruses dissolve into elated oohs and ahhs made by backing vocals and electronics cooing in unison.

However, Yours Truly is not all fun and games. Wilson is in an awkward spot, and it shows in every clever lyrical twist (“Due to lack of interest, tomorrow is cancelled,” “I can do it without you…but it won’t be very good”). The trouble is that Wilson styles his wit in a manner neither endearing nor snarky; he rides the cool-as-a-cucumber middle and comes across as aloof.

It’s certainly rare to find popular rock where the instruments supply the je ne sais quoi. Even stranger is that a band hailed as one of Britain’s latest hopefuls is most memorable in a guttural, bluesy romp (“My Kind of Guy”) that sounds like it was incubated in the mud of America’s Deep South. Perhaps Kaiser Chiefs would have made this good album great if they forgot about the expectations of their genre and just let the party happen. However, Yours Truly is an odd specimen that is worth venturing through—and these boys can write a mean chorus!