Album Review: The Kooks, 10 Tracks To Echo In The Dark

Hard to believe it is 16 years since the release of their debut album Inside In/Inside Out, but the good news is The Kooks remain a buoyant bunch. The singles off that record – ‘Ooh La’, ‘Naïve’ and ‘She Moves In Her Own Way’ – saw it shift millions of copies.

While that landmark album continues to turn on fresh batches of teenagers, their latest, 10 Tracks To Echo In The Dark, performs a familiar trick for the original raft of Kooks converts, now aged, dealing as it does with marriage, having children and the clamping jaws of reality. Those life-changes are met with a valiant exuberance. Frontman Luke Pritchard’s declamation of “It’s such a fucked up world/ but I’m glad we’re livin’ in it” on ‘Beautiful World’ is admirable in its remarkably intact idealism.

‘Connection’ boasts a deliciously addictive groove, while ‘Without A Doubt’ finds them in familiar, Kinks-influenced territory. Elsewhere, they prove more intrepid, thanks to the ‘80s disco of ‘Modern Days’ and the creeping funk of ‘25’. Echo-friendly, anyone?

7/10
Listen: ‘Connection’

Out now via lonely cat.

Read more in the brand new issue of Hot Press.