- Music
- 01 Mar 05
There must be some mistake, surely? A new British band that don’t stick needles in their arm, live in an East London squat or sound like a really, really bad Franz Ferdinand demo. Not that Kaiser Chiefs are going to win any prizes for originality. Named after one of South Africa’s most famous footie teams, the Leeds quintet have a big thing for The Jam, XTC, Blur and any other band to whom the term “quintessentially English” applies.
There must be some mistake, surely? A new British band that don’t stick needles in their arm, live in an East London squat or sound like a really, really bad Franz Ferdinand demo.
Not that Kaiser Chiefs are going to win any prizes for originality. Named after one of South Africa’s most famous footie teams – think Arsenal, only in Soweto – the Leeds quintet have a big thing for The Jam, XTC, Blur and any other band to whom the term “quintessentially English” applies.
When the songwriting is of a Weller/Partridge/Albarn-esque standard, as on the shouty ‘I Predict A Riot’ and insanely catchy ‘Na Na Na Na Naa’, it makes you want to rush out and buy a pencil case so you can Tipp-Ex their name on it.
Unfortunately, the majority of Employment sounds like a shoddy, Made In China knock-off of the real moddish thing. Exhibit ‘A’ for the prosecution is ‘Modern Way’, a song you can imagine Blur shortlisting for Leisure and then relegating to a B-side. Not entirely merit-less, but something you wouldn’t feel the need to invent if it didn’t exist.