Employment

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.