Cold War Kids / Dear Miss Lonelyhearts

Filed in Cold War Kids,

Album Reviews | Released on Co-operative Music
| By Leah Connolly

Cold War Kids
Dear Miss Lonelyhearts
(Downtown Records/CoOperative Music)
***
For a Californian band, Cold War Kids have never been about the stereotypical blissed-out jams or sunshine lifestyle – but I suppose we picked that up way back when their debut full-length ‘Robbers & Cowards’ came to our attention back in 2006. We should have guessed from their given name, really. After a two year hiatus and Modest Mouse’s Dann Gallucci now stepping in as full-time guitarist, it really is fascinating to see how much artists can grow over time, yet it can be just as imposingly devastating to witness an opposing motion of decline. So what does CWK’s awaited return release offer?

As ones for integrating cinematic musicianship and cutting-to-the-core vocals in the past, opener ‘Miracle Mile’ resonates as a foot-stomping, key-heavy piece that is complimented by Nathan Willett’s rich, passionate twang that resonates as uncompromisingly demanding, Sky-high soars of “Come up for air’ demand attention and passion from the listener.

‘Lost That Easy’ begins minimalistic as barley-there, bubbling keys link with achingly rasp vocals that almost permeate with arrogance of “I never lost that easy”, before curling itself back to being another dimension of a welcome return, even if they haven’t bought out the big guns, just yet.

‘Loner Phase’ starts out misleadingly continuous, as disco-esque synths are bulldozed aside on behalf of charged riffs that sound like they’ve been plucked straight off a Trailer Trash Tracy’s release, that do actually remind us that this is, in fact, a rock record before we get carried into a passive-aggressive, folky crossover world. This isn’t the only time the boys in the band do step up to the plate and successfully at that, as ’Bottled Up’ also showcases fantastic capabilities of merging stirringly truthful odes and sing-a-long choruses, with layered technicalities of hand-clapping goodness.

‘Fear and Trembling’ has all the attributes on paper to make a fantastic track; the rolling drums, mammoth cymbal crashes and just enough accumulation to create a memorable capsule of art for years to come- yet they don’t just hit the nerves that you know they could have, resonating at its cessation as messy and ravaged rather than “experimental”- but then again, have CWK ever really stepped away from what we know and love them for?

Sure, you can’t pan every cult artist or band for not making sophomore and future albums surrounded on the formulae of their most commercial or celebrated work (I’m looking at you, Hospital Beds…), however, upon tracks such as ‘Dear Miss Lonely Hearts’, Willett’s vocals sound undersupported and ill- suited to the instrumental pairings they’ve been assigned. From the achingly beautiful cries of “I can’t hear you/ Did you say that you’re happy for me?” upon the records closer, ‘Bitter Poem’ actually evokes emotion and a heavy heart; hypnotising their audience to hang on every note and slither of the tongue. If only the boys were as technically cohesive across their whole ten offerings, maybe a complementing submission of love, lust and pain would have won their way back into our hearts – but as for now, there is no great-return butterflies for this emotively scuzzy quartet, just yet.
Leah Jade Connolly