Kasabian - West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum

Rating:

* * *

Verdict

:

Some great songs, shame about the album.

Kasabian write cracking songs - pity the lippy Brits have come up with a sprawling and muddled third album. Much like the Happy Mondays before them they conjure up a sprightly whimsical groove on songs like Take Aim and the oblivious and carefree jaunt of Where Did All The Love Go?.

But also in the tradition of Happy Mondays, songs often sound unfinished and drift off in pointless directions (like on the noisy and waffly Fast Fuse).

And often on West Ryder it's the transition between tracks that is chaotic and incohesive. The brilliantly titled Swarfega - as in the industrial hand cleaner - is a pulsing instrumental ideal for merging seamlessly into Fast Fuse. But Swarfega, which at two minutes is too short anyway, peters out into a difficult silence. Yes, a finnicky detail, but it's those sorts of things that make an album great.

Kasabian have always been a shambolic and unhinged outfit, which is what makes them such a potent live act with a mix of swagger, cockiness, and tongue in cheek shenanigans. On record though it's hard to get away with unless you can harness the shambles, which is what the Happy Mondays did so well.

Still, you can't beat Thick As Thieves (akin to the Beatles channelling a Spaghetti Western soundtrack), and the sloppy Prodigy rock of Vlad the Impaler.

Scott Kara