Kaiser Chiefs - Off With Their Heads

In their native United Kingdom, the Kaiser Chiefs are one of the most successful bands of the decade, selling out stadiums in seconds and hitting number one without breaking a sweat. In the United States, they’ve barely made any impact at all. Their third album “Off With Their Heads,” released last month, barely scraped into the Billboard Hot 100; its first single, “Never Miss a Beat,” didn’t even chart.

Listening to the record, it’s easy to see why the Kaisers have no following state-side: they are proudly, defiantly, almost offensively British, gulping down a pint of lager with one hand while waving a Union Jack with the other. The album’s cover pays tribute to the Kinks, the back references the Jam, and frontman Ricky Wilson sounds like Damon Albarn of Blur; three oh-so-British bands who famously kept the accents and the Anglicisms and never made the tricky transatlantic jump. With “Off With their Heads,” the Kaisers are clearly situating themselves in this tradition. The album is a savvy, shiny recreation of late-seventies New Wave, almost scholarly in its attention to detail. It’s desperately backward looking – and it’s great fun.

Brash opener “Spanish Metal” sounds like an out-take from the Clash’s “London Calling,” jerking with awkward white-boy funk; the propulsive “Can’t Say What I Mean” rides on a furious churn of guitars and organs, taut and catchy like Elvis Costello circa 1977; and on the beautiful, melodic “Remember You’re a Girl,” the Kaisers sound like the Beatles brought back to life, Wilson losing his usual ironic smirk amidst a lush arrangement of breathy harmonies and slide guitars.

It is true that the British music scene today seems caught in a desperate time-warp. We’ve got Amy Winehouse on one side, raiding the legacy of Nina Simone for all it’s worth, and we’ve got Duffy on the other, reviving the ghost of Dusty Springfield with her soft, Motown lilt. Many have looked on this trend with a strange, somewhat hypocritical mix of joy and dread. In my view, as long as we keep getting albums as smart and enjoyable as “Off with their Heads,” we have no need to worry. Innovation can only really get you so far.


"Off With Their Heads" released 20 October, 2008 by Universal Records.
Images courtesy of Universal Records and Empire Online.