Kaiser Chiefs

The misstep that Britain's Kaiser Chiefs took with their sophomore effort, Yours Truly, Angry Mob, is one that no band wishes upon itself or its mortal enemies. Whatever energy the group had coming off their raucous, Clash-inspired debut Employment has now dissipated over the course of not one, but two albums. Maybe they're rushing things, or maybe it's just that Employment was too big of an explosion for the band to come out of the gate with. However, their third offering, Off With Their Heads, isn't the follow-up to Employment that we've been clamoring for either. Although it does have a few moments that Yours Truly, Angry Mob didn't.

Lyrically, they've never really been that innovative—at least Bloc Party tries to get a bit political—but listen to "Can't Say What I Mean." The song works fine as one of the more upbeat rock tunes, but it really sounds like they're more interested in snappy one-liners than anything else. "Good Days, Bad Days" offers up the phrase "sticks and stones and animal bones," as something prophetic. It's not. The Kaiser Chiefs were never wordplay geniuses, but they had strong music to back up their pop leanings. Now, their sound drifts into a watered down version of INXS (the '80s version, not the reality TV version). The problem with Kaiser Chiefs might be their abandonment of that post-punk energy they riffed on during Employment. With wanting to move away from that sound, you need something to say—Kaiser Chiefs, so far, haven't.

–Michael D. Ayers
10.14.08

Though "Ruby" was one of the Kaiser Chiefs' biggest hits, it and the rest of Yours Truly, Angry Mob were disappointing, trading Employment's ambitious spark for workmanlike consistency. It seemed like that could be the fate of the rest of the band's output until Lily Allen's funky pop cover of "Oh My God" appeared on Mark Ronson's album Version, which ultimately led to Ronson working on the Kaisers' third album. The golden touch Ronson had as a producer for artists like Allen and Amy Winehouse is also evident throughout Off with Their Heads: he imbues the band's spiky Brit-rock with his pop and dance music flair, throwing together strings, synths, live and programmed drums, exotic percussion and lots of guitars in a new wave-y/rave-y mix that nods to bands like Klaxons and Late of the Pier. The cheeky "Addicted to Drugs" gets an extra kick from Ronson's a go-go bells, giving the song a kinetic beat even though the rest of the track is straight-ahead guitar pop, while "You Want History"'s brisk hi-hats and surging synths flirt with the dancefloor. Ronson also brings in Allen as a guest vocalist for the excellent, slightly paranoid pop of "Always Happens Like That" and rapper Sway on "Half the Truth," who gives the song's angry young man rant against doublespeak a sharper edge.

Of course, all the creative production and guest stars Ronson offers wouldn't mean anything if the Kaiser Chiefs' songwriting wasn't focused, but Off with Their Heads delivers on this front too. The band rails against stupidity and conformity like they did on Yours Truly, Angry Mob, but this time they know that while it's smart to be witty, it's even smarter to be insidiously catchy. The band's commentary is fused to some of their most pointed hooks: "Never Miss a Beat" rails against how "it's cool to know nothing" to a fittingly relentless rhythm. "Like It Too Much" touches on the Kaisers' latent XTC fetish -- words like "You are descended from animals/And you are constructed of chemicals" could have flowed from Andy Partridge's pen, and the song's lumbering stomp only heightens the similarity. Elsewhere, "Can't Say What I Mean" is wittily tongue-tied and "Good Days and Bad Days" manages the impressive feat of being happy-go-lucky with sounding complacent; more importantly, they show that the Kaiser Chiefs remember the playful spirit of British rock that a lot of traditionalist U.K. bands forget. A couple of songs lack the urgency of the album's best moments (though "Tomato in the Rain" boasts the great lyric "A policeman on the take/Weighted down in a lake" and "Remember You're a Girl" has a naggingly deja vu-inspiring melody), letting Off with Their Heads fall just short of greatness. Still, this is easily some of the Kaisers' finest -- and most consistent -- music. ~ Heather Phares, All Music Guide