New Music: The Kooks - Konk

The Kooks' Shine On

A colleague of mine referred to The Kooks as "quite possibly today's best pop band." I wouldn't go quite that far, but they do have a few things going for them. First, they do indeed write great pop songs. Secondly, I'm a sucker for harmony and The Kooks' formula includes a lot of it. But perhaps most importantly, their lead singer sings in an adorable cockney accent that just makes me melt.

Their latest album, Konk, delivers what a fan would expect: medium- to fast-paced guitar-driven melodic pop songs. Not unlike the latest from We Are Scientists, it's good stuff but it's not going to change the world. If my CD collection were organized by the way the bands sound, I'd file Konk right next to albums by Franz Ferdinand, Supergrass and The Strokes.

The songs are solid, with only a few annoyances. The song "Do You Wanna" puts all the narrator's cards on the table with the oh-so-discreet statement, "I know you wanna, I know you wanna make love to me." Barf. The song "Mr. Maker" is so reminiscent of Belle and Sebastian's "Me and the Major" that I can't take it seriously. But tracks like "Shine On" and "Always Where I Need To Be" steer clear from stereotypes and cheesy lyrics and provide what my college was referring to: great, pure pop.

One final note: many of their YouTube videos from the new album don't seem to work. You might be better off listening to tracks off their myspace page.