Kasabian have made no secret of their lofty aspirations in the run up to the release of 48.13. “Everything has been training to this point,” the Glastonbury headliners explain. They are hardly demons for understatement, telling anyone who’ll listen that their new opus will be massive. Album number five sure has a lot riding on it – and the initial verdict is that it’s a brave, occasionally brilliant, genre-straddling opus that will astound their legions of fans and confound their critics in equal measure.
Don’t be fooled by the simplistic, troll-baiting album title and artwork. While yes, Kasabian guitarist, songwriter and producer Serge Pizzorno has stripped back the layers of guitar tracks and opted for a starker, less cluttered sound, ideas-wise 48.13 remains full to bursting point. Their most dance-influenced outing to date (check ‘Explodes’ and ‘Stevie’ for immediate evidence), the LP is consistently strong on grooves. ‘Bumblebee’ adapts a formula which made many nu metal bands millions by splicing together rock riffs and hip hop dynamics; ‘Doomsday’ is a skank-tastic modern ska song; and ‘Mortis’ and ‘Levitation’ are both interesting oddities which might best be described as goth spaghetti western.
For all of 48.13’s many highlights (the anthemic ‘Eez-Eh’ already feels like a Kasabian classic), there are tracks that we may have to live with to love. ‘Treat’ starts off as a solid New Order-esque banger but seems to unravel at the midway point and never quite recover; meanwhile, the Oasis-meets-Beach Boys ballad ‘SPS’ feels a little out of place in comparison to the previous 12 tracks. Overall, however, it is hard to fault the band’s ambition. Is 48.13 really the album they were born to make though? Let’s live with it and find out...