Bearing in mind I AM KLOOT'S eponymously-titled second album was this writer's favourite record of 2003, to say their new album "Gods & Monsters" is eagerly-awaited round here is something of an understatement.
You reviewer can also brazenly leak the news in advance that said album is an absolute corker and everything this writer was hoping for. But perhaps we shouldn't get ahead of ourselves, for "Over My Shoulder" is, in itself, a rather fine early delivery from the mothership. It's Kloot at their poppiest, with patient, niggly guitar and one of Peter Jobson's best melodic stretches of a bassline carrying along what amounts to a catchy glide of a track full of Johnny's usual pithy observations of life, love and loss. It's by no means the new album's best, but still snuggles gratefully into your heart and makes itself at home immediately.
As ever, the B-sides are notable enough too. "Great Escape" is a downbeat, acoustic affair and a hilariously bitchy one-upmanship blues with great, Costello-ish wordplay ("You want to learn to live like an aristocrat/ but your girlfriend's ear-rings soon put a stop to that") delivered in Johnny's best Liam-meets-Lennon vocal. Cool, in a word.
|
Closing tune "Junk Culture" eases itself into life with the ominous drone of what could feasibly be a harmonium (the new album features a lot of ancient and unlikely keyboards -ed) and re-arranges itself as an edgy, semi-acoustic thing with bizarre Ray Davies-meets-Salvador Dali lyrical invective ("I was trying to pick up some orderliness/ from the shopping bag inspirational choir") that's enough to have you running screaming from Ikea in an instant. It's scurrying and frenetic and Kloot at their most disposable, yet still ridiculously engaging for all that.
Just to seal the deal, there's also a magnificent, semi-animated promo video which gives Johnny co-star billing with the crate he uses to perch his foot upon when the band are onstage. It's a deliciously surreal thing of wonder and a little mini-epic in its' own right. So there you go: many reasons to be cheerful. Go get without further ado.
|
