Destined to soundtrack every current affairs show on binge drinking until the crack of doom, Kaiser Chiefs’ 2005 hit I Predict a Riot turned out to be more than a young band’s handy pension plan. It introduced their postBritpop outlook with admirable concision, proving there was still an appetite for young men who thought modern life was rubbish.

Their second album doesn’t feature such an obviously ubiquitous hit: instead, it’s a work of consolidation, of steady progress, of knuckling down. That’s not to say it’s bad or boring. “Let it never be said that romance is dead/ Cos there’s so little else occupying my head,” admits the engaging singer Ricky Wilson on the choppy single Ruby, but Kaiser Chiefs aren’t happy to splash about in the lukewarm puddle of indie heartbreak.

The record is studded with surprising little images: the insolent swagger of Retirement is an endearingly uncool fantasy about inventing the tumble dryer, while the Madness strut of Learnt My Lesson Well admits “life could be worse/ I could be a nurse”. Yet while the spiky pop of Everything is Average Nowadays or Heat Dies Down is musically accomplished, the songwriting is oddly dated, lacking any of-the-moment urgency. You don’t have to look too hard today to find bands in thrall to the Strokes and the Libertines, the sons and daughters of Doherty strumming guitars on every corner; the Kaiser Chiefs, however, are even less modern. Much of Yours Truly, Angry Mob is still powered by Britpop’s enduring aesthetic, Duracell Bunny music drumming resolutely away at a well-worn indie idiom. Still, if Kaiser Chiefs’ role is to end up as the last men standing at the student disco, they deserve that last lucrative dance.

(B-Unique)

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