Kooks

The Kooks’ debut album sold in excess of two million copies, yet this young band seem to already be running out of ideas. Not that it is completely their fault, as they appeared on the scene in 2006 when every English guitar band seemed guaranteed a moment in the spotlight because of the popularity of the Arctic Monkeys. Despite their slightly generic sound their breezy pop music isn’t unpleasant and verges on catchy from time to time. Konk, named after Ray Davies’ studio where the record was recorded, was put together in just six weeks and the fast turnaround appears to have worked in the band’s favour because they haven’t had the chance to over-polish the songs. But the other side of that is that the quality control is very patchy and there are a handful of tracks that would not have made the final cut if the band had a wider range to pull from. Having released six singles from their first album, and now delivering a second album that isn’t a large step forward from its predecessor, the Kooks are likely to do one of two things: they will either follow the Coral’s path of continuing to release interesting but similar albums or pull an Oasis, who were, let’s face it, only good for two albums anyway. Based on Konk, it looks more like the latter.