Cold War Kids: "Loyalty to Loyalty"
By Sheuli Molla Cold War Kids, the bluesy soul-rock quartet from California, have reinvented their sound with their second LP, “Loyalty to Loyalty,” while ensuring that the compellingly downtrodden characters that populated their 2006 debut cling to life. The release of their first full-length album, “Robbers and Cowards,” in 2006 garnered the Kids a newfound celebrity and introduced us to the curious and controversial social commentary that laces their lyrics. Songs like “We Used to Vacation” and “Saint John” came like successive blunt blows to the head, recalling heartrending stories of alcohol abuse and sexual assault. Despite singer Nathan Willet’s jaded, melancholy words in 2006, the overall effect was quite powerful and somehow reassuring. Two years later, Cold War Kids have returned boasting a new sound, evidenced by some novel touches – the tribal drums in the song “Mexican Dogs” and the slow, old-timey twang captured in “Avalanche in B.” “Loyalty to Loyalty,” which dropped on Sept. 23, is set apart from Cold War Kids’ other LP and EPs simply because it incorporates a wider scope of phonics into the Kids’ already unique sound. No instrument or sample is taboo here, and their characteristic heavy piano is, at times, even traded for synthesized keyboard. Despite the spirit of reform, Cold War Kids remain loyal to their defining elements, reviving the usual suspects for their fall-staging: the lovers, liars, livers and possessors of generally every slightly-forbidden human emotion gone awry. Sorry, but this album is no cheerier than the last. If you are looking to hear a good sad story, consider listening to “Golden Gate Jumpers,” which recounts a woman’s suicide intervention in fluid verse. The single somewhat-upbeat song is appropriately titled “Relief.” Also, “Dreams Old Men Dream” incorporates major chord progressions in a chorus that sounds almost too bubbly to have been written by this band. These emotions, however, appear almost alien amidst Loyalty’s gray cityscape. Cold War Kids forged a record that’s only disappointing if you are more inclined toward tales of content – successful people living joyful lives in the country – over the biographies of the most desperate inner-city junkies and jumpers. |
