Album Review: Kasabian - West Rider Pauper Lunatic Asylum
Kasabian has been stereotyped ever since they arrived in 2005 with the anthem that was “Club Foot”. Oasis latched onto the Leeds quintet as potential successors in betwixt verbally accosting every other band under the sun, including Bloc Party (“a band off university challenge”) and Keane (“shit”). Kasabian embraced this challenge, not wanting to preempt any success that they might find.
Five years later, they return with their third album proper, the ludicrously titled West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum (a local lunatic asylum, for those interested). In case the title didn’t give things away, it’s a concept album. Still not convinced? Take a closer look at the art work — it’s clear to see how far they have come.
Cut to the chase, is this really a concept album? In direct comparison with examples including David Bowie’s The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars and Green Day’s American Idiot, the answer is a resounding “no”. It’s hard to perceive any unified theme that spreads across the whole album, and the band’s comments don‘t strengthen the case: “There’s a couple of songs that kind of went Stones and there’s definitely one song that sounds like Daft Punk and The Clash together.”
As implied, there are a number of interesting directions followed, but here they seem incapable of keeping focused long enough to produce a truly cohesive record… although that’s not to say that there aren’t triumphs. “Underdog” opens things up, immediately showcasing some harsher production from Dan The Automator (of Gorillaz fame). The sound is less clean, largely due to the addition of some crunching bass lines. Tom Meighan’s cocksure delivery is welcome: “Life in technicolour, sprayed out of walls/I’ve been pounding at the pavement…/till there’s nothing at all/I got my cloak and dagger at the bar-room brawl…”
Surely to be a single, “Fast Fuse” fuses relentless picking and textbook energy. Though in a complete turnaround, “Take Aim” is a huge departure, and an interesting one at that, as strings and brass make up the most musically impressive track on the album (and probably to date). The production is excellent, book-ending the core of the track with slow, lilted brass. Shortly after, the album begins to deliver on its promise by trading in Meighan’s bravado for Serge Pizzorno’s delicate drawl. “Thick As Thieves” brings the Mariachi and Wild West influences to the fore, a ballad at heart.
Kasabian’s commercial hits all share a common theme of infectious rhythm and potent braggadocio choruses: “Shoot the runner, I’m the King and she’s my Queen”. This principle holds true. “Fire” - the lead single - isn’t at all removed from their original work. In another unexpected turn, “Vlad The Impaler” is a raucous, intense mission statement (”Listen up all you masqueraders- now we have the floor”) that sneaks up and batters down the door with its audacious vocals and huge melodies, cramming in an organ and multiple breakdowns into a five minute whirlwind. A clear reminder that they still have shock value.
Shocking or not, this album is littered with troubles. For absolute proof of this, we need to look no further than album closer “Happiness”, which features tired vocals and an overblown backing gospel choir. Despite its heightened intentions, it’s a subdued closer, fizzling out without ever really making a clear mark, and not representative of their effort.
Sonically, West Rider Pauper Lunatic Asylum is far and away the band’s most diverse album to date. The high spots largely come in the form of their usual fast paced stadium anthems, but the general direction tends to lean toward more mellow, subdued work. Their bravery is admirable, and they come ever so close to fulfilling the promise of this album. Unfortunately, each and every time they hinder themselves, by pandering to what they believe they should sound like, as opposed to following their own path. Regardless, they have certainly outgrown the perpetual ‘lad-rock’ title that haunts them. The time of anthems is past them. One wonders what the Gallagher brothers would say now. “Keep it simple next time around, boyos…”? Probably not.
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West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum
I would agree that the album isn’t perfect, but it seems to be the one that gets the most play in my library. It is so refreshing to hear a band that wants to have their own sound instead of following others. The only downer in the album is “Happines”. I can listen to it, but it is the only song that doesn’t draw me back in. One of your comments struck me as odd. You stated that they didn’t stick to a theme and yet they really did for the most part. You stated that the duet was weird. I think lunatics in an asylum are kind of weird, it must follow a theme. A top notch album in my book.
Reviewer: a prize twat. Once again the public is presented with an article by a pretentious middle class obnoxious shithead enlightening us through their lambasting of bands such as Oasis and Kasabian as simplistic. To say that Noel Gallagher would flirt with the idea that a simple album would be better is pure fucken trash. The Blueprint for Oasis was The Stone Roses, the most complex band of the last 20 odd years. Oasis last album itself was a departure from their earlier sound and a psychedelic influenced album, akin to this one. If an artist is not pretentious in their efforts to be percieved as progressive, creative and artistic(think Bloc Party, Damon Albarn), that doesnt mean their simplistic, it means they dont have their heads up their own fucken arses. the review was awful and sloppy, as for the album, was top. 8/10, best kasabian by far. You dissapoint me Will Hines.
I was not really a fan of this lot before this album but having listened to this a few times while working I must say it is probably the best thing I’ve heard this year. It never fails to make me smile and even tempts me to sing along which as a rare thing indeed for me.
If the new Muse release is anywhere near this it will be a good year.
I think the reviews are somewhat harsh to say the least, this album flows nicely and is gripping from the start, there is enough good tracks on the record to deserve an 8/10.
Your comments pretty much prove my point- Kasabian’s fans are hard-core and you are definitely within that crowd. My job as a reviewer is to be objective, not subjective, and that is what I have done.
It is a totally disjointed album of two distinct halves, one with their Mariachi influenced concept album, the other with their usual anthems. And they don’t fit together.. Fair point on the Leicester thing (Wikipedia isn’t always right
), but it’s not really going to give you and one-up-man-ship I’m afraid…
7/10 or 3.5/5 is a fair mark for this, a promising album but not well thought out in it’s structure. You are, however, entitled to your opinion, thanks for the comment!
First of all,it’s LEICESTER where Kasabian hail from, not Leeds.
(Research is a fantastic thing.)
I agree with the ‘Disjointed’ idea after the first listen, but
the boys have been brave with this release. Technically superb
and diverse, nobody could describe any track of being a pop song. It definatly a grower. Sergio hasn’t got the strongest
voice but I saw their gig this month and he matched Tom easily.
More of a thinkers album, I feel. CANNOT be less than 4/5.
Anything less and you will need to re-check other bands ratings.
I agree that it is a grower- I think it’s definitely their most complex album, but a lot of this complexity is totally mismatched- case in point, ‘Fire’ and ‘Thick As Thieves’ belong on two totally different records. I couldn’t escape that fact, as much as I liked the songs individually (for the most part!), therefore the 7/10.
I still believe there is more to see here, they’ve completely eclipsed their first efforts and are really starting to become the band we had hoped…
Thanks for the comment
I really think this album is a grower, and 3 1/2 out of 5 stars doesn’t do it justice.
At first I thought it was just ok, but after a few listens I’m actually taken aback by how good a piece of music Kasabian have put together. Its a tight record from start to finish and up there with the best albums to come out of the UK since the turn of the century.
Pretentious, as per. (The album, not the review)
It’s definitely not an 8 out of 10, and don’t even get me started on 9 or 10
Zoe, agreed on those 5 high spots- although I’m still struggling to love ‘Fast Fuse’ as much as the others. The rest of the album is neither here nor there really, hence the rating…
What did you think of the duet? Very strange…
out of control, anything less than a 4 of 5 is a bastardization of our rating system
I dig it enough, but I’m not going to stoop so low as to buy the album. “Underdog”, “Fast Fuse” “Thick as Thieves” (very Ennio Morricone!), “Vlad the Impaler”, and “Fire” are overly decent.
Thanks for the comments guys- most of the press are reacting well to the album, but I was expecting more. There are some really promising moments but I just don’t think it gels as an album…
Haven’t seen the new setlist but I’m predicting the new shows will be pretty weird, and based around all this new material. Not sure how Serge’s voice will stand up live!
agree with this review and with garpo. sadly, they’ll likely push this rubbish on us at their shows.
I loved their first 2 albums but I wasn’t thrilled with this one.