Cold War Kids Tell Us To 'Behave Yourself'
Cold War Kids' 'Behave Yourself' offers no new direction.
Cold War Kids
Behave Yourself
Released on Jan 19, 2010
The strength of the Cold War Kids seems to lie in two things: Nathan Willett’s strained vocal stylings and their sparse musical arrangements. More often than not, their songs are classified as visceral and stilted, if only because of their tendency to favor choppy arrangements.
Those two words are as good as any to describe their EP Behave Yourself. With this release, the foursome has offered up a quartet of songs that were probably meant to satiate their fans’ needs for the band’s brand of punkish soul. However, when putting out an EP, it’s crucial for each song to earn its place. Unfortunately, only one of the songs on Behave Yourself stands out as worthy of a special release.
The EP starts out with “Audience,” which has Cold War Kids sounding like a watered-down version of themselves. Is it entirely awful? It can’t be put in that category, because it’s quite listenable, but it just sounds like something they knocked out in a lazy afternoon of jamming with each other. Willett’s voice is missing some, though not all, of it’s usual venom - but once you remove even a bit of his usual tone, the track suffers.
The two middle tracks - “Coffee Spoon” and “Santa Ana Winds” - aren’t too much of an improvement. “Coffee Spoon” features some interesting falsetto wailing from Willett, but the electronic organ throughout the song didn’t add anything positive to the track. I appreciate their attempt to utilize different instruments, but since it only makes an appearance for maybe a minute, it sounded like even they weren’t sure if they wanted it in the song. “Santa Ana Winds” has the band sounding more self-assured, instrumentally speaking, and Willett starts to stir up a bit more of the passion that listeners are used to by this point in the band’s career, so it’s not a complete bust.
“Sermons” is the track to listen to on Behave Yourself. Between the minimal piano, tambourine and guitar parts that start the track and Willett’s voice finally showing its full potential, it serves as a fantastic song to end the EP. At his best on this track, he sounds like he’s snarling at listeners, and alternately wailing for forgiveness. The final 50 seconds verge on deserving a spiritual classification - not to play too much to the song title, but it’s true. While the track isn’t necessarily pushing the boundaries of their style, Cold War Kids are loved for just that: their style; and “Sermons” shows that off flawlessly.
High Point
Willett’s voice on “Sermons.” It’s the right combination of pleading and powerful.
Low Point
The sloppy organ on “Coffee Spoon.” It’s OK to stick with mainly piano and guitar, guys. Really.
Posted by Alyssa Vincent on Jan 21, 2010 @ 10:00 am
