Tracks
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The Kooks seem like one of those bands who stay afloat based on the front man's (in this case Luke Pritchard) attractive-in-a-very-sort-of-alternative-way and an album or two's worth of decent songs.
Despite a three-year gap, Luke Pritchard's voice now sounds tired and matured, but in the pejorative sense. It's similar to a choir boy hitting puberty and thus being forced to quit; without the voice, The Kooks' work loses much of its splendour, both in a studio and live.
That's not to say the albums doesn't have a few high points. The titular "Junk of the Heart", which also got released as a single, calls back to some of the greatest moments on Inside In/Inside Out, and "How'd You Like That" is great in that sort of "Stormy Weather" kind of way that made Konk quite good.
The ulterior ten tracks, however, range from uninteresting to just plain bad. Slightly uncomfortable colloquialisms worked to keep the attention back on the first album with "Jackie Bigtits", why not go for "Fuck the World Off", Luke Pritchard must have thought. It is a shame that the song is so boring to listen to it almost made me turn off the album entirely. I persevered to find little worth of said persistence, however: the album never even comes close to that funky sound again, even if "No More Mr. Nice Guy", the final track, does start off strong for the first ten seconds only to then fall into the same grind that is present throughout the album.
Junk of the Heart just has you wishing you were listening to either of the previous albums instead.
Despite a three-year gap, Luke Pritchard's voice now sounds tired and matured, but in the pejorative sense. It's similar to a choir boy hitting puberty and thus being forced to quit; without the voice, The Kooks' work loses much of its splendour, both in a studio and live.
That's not to say the albums doesn't have a few high points. The titular "Junk of the Heart", which also got released as a single, calls back to some of the greatest moments on Inside In/Inside Out, and "How'd You Like That" is great in that sort of "Stormy Weather" kind of way that made Konk quite good.
The ulterior ten tracks, however, range from uninteresting to just plain bad. Slightly uncomfortable colloquialisms worked to keep the attention back on the first album with "Jackie Bigtits", why not go for "Fuck the World Off", Luke Pritchard must have thought. It is a shame that the song is so boring to listen to it almost made me turn off the album entirely. I persevered to find little worth of said persistence, however: the album never even comes close to that funky sound again, even if "No More Mr. Nice Guy", the final track, does start off strong for the first ten seconds only to then fall into the same grind that is present throughout the album.
Junk of the Heart just has you wishing you were listening to either of the previous albums instead.