Album Review

Kaiser Chiefs – Love’s Not A Game (but I’m Winning)

• 24th Oct 2007

From the outset in a live setting the energy, enthusiasm and general tightness of Leeds’ new darlings the Kaiser Chiefs (yeah, you heard that Embrace), would even make Gordon Brown forget his troubles. On CD it has in the past depended on your mood and, to some extent, your tolerance levels. Is there really much point in saying anything more about them? Well, their second album ‘Yours Truly, Angry Mob’ with more than a little help from this subtler single begins to cloudy the waters about Ricky Wilson and co’s recorded credentials, as the flowery Brit-pop accompaniment is discarded for an atmospheric and searching acoustic backdrop. This allows Wilson to show a serious, wistful and more intense range, delving deep into his heart:

“I won’t be the one to disappoint you anymore.”

This line will ring in the ears of cynics who have dubbed da Chiefs one dimensional Brit-pop burying scumbags on the evidence of first album, ‘Employment’. Much like Franz Ferdinand, Wilson and co have used the follow up material to a dazzling debut album, in order to show a deeper, more brooding side. ‘Love’s Not A Game (but I’m Winning)’, is definitely worth paying attention to and writing about.