Think of Yorkshire and what comes to mind? Solid, sensible things — tea you can trust, bitter, old men riding bathtubs down hills, terriers (bear with me). Glamour comes a long way down the list, which is why, the republic of Sheffield aside, the county is rarely associated with pop’s greatest excesses. Even the best that Leeds, the biggest city, has offered, from the Gang of Four’s agitprop to the dark day when Sisters of Mercy invented goth, has been powered by outsiders, usually students.

Cynics might suggest that it took the place ten years to catch up with Britpop, even. While Oasis and Blur were duking it out at the top of the charts with Pulp just behind them, Leeds had no one (but Shed Seven from nearby York). No wonder Kaiser Chiefs, initially mistaken by many as a Blur tribute band, surprised the world with the consistent quality of their first album, Employment . In particular I Predict a Riot proved not only timely, but memorable with its quaint syntax. But Ricky Wilson and pals couldn’t have predicted sales in the millions to the very masses they derided, and an invitation to play the US leg of Live 8 (to this day the band are convinced it was a clerical error).

Which means that Kaiser Chiefs are not just an indie band trying to sustain the success of their first release, but an internationally popular act aspiring to make the leap from the parochial to stadium status. If they want to that is. On the evidence of this superbly titled album (deserving of an extra star for that alone), they must have doubts.

Musically though this set improves on their alarmingly successful debut, nailing their gleefully direct approach. They don’t exactly reinvent the wheel, but they do make exceedingly English pop music, and without a strangled estuarial whine to be heard. The first single Ruby is as blunt a chant as can be, as the band have admitted. But The Angry Mob (“We are the angry mob, we read the papers every day, we like who we like and we hate who we hate, but we’re also easily swayed”) is needle-sharp and, of course, perfect for audience participation. Even Wilson’s ruminations on the vagaries of fame — beset by a fan on the obvious single-to-be Thank You Very Much and aware of the weakness of his complaint in the catchy, gloomy Learnt My Lesson Well — hardly grate.

This new seriousness is relative. Love’s not a Competition (But I’m Winning) , possibly the definitive Kaisers sardonic-but-knowing title, owes plenty to Duran Duran’s school disco smoocher Save a Prayer . The much heralded Everything is Average Nowadays is surprisingly jolly.

The drummer Nick Hodgson takes a lead vocal (rather well) on the pensive Boxing Champ , while I Can Do It Without You (“but it wouldn’t be very good”) is a fine sarcastic love song.

Best of the lot is Highroyds , an ode to a youth spent in the shadow of an old Leeds asylum with Cocker-quality lyrics over a frantic garage rock workout.

Fans will be relieved that Wilson can sing “I won’t be the one to disappoint you” with some authority.

(B-Unique)

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