The Kooks-Konk

Once again, I'm back with a review. This one is a little tough to do too, because one thing you have to remember is that no matter how much you like a band, you have to be brutally honest and overall, unmerciful. So, Konk, by the Kooks is on the chopping block for this post.

 

Konk, first of all, was named after the studio that recorded the record. That's just a little background information. This was the Kooks sophomore record (succeeding Inside In/Inside Out which could be considered as one of the best records of this decade thus far) and it had a lot of hype to live up to, due to the success of Inside In/Inside Out. 

Now, I'm not going to say that this was a bad record. This record had a lot of solid building blocks in it. The guitar throughout the entire record was impressive to say the least, and thank Kooks' guitarist Hugh Harris for that. The guitar work really stands out, especially in the song Gap and as well as See The Sun (cleverly related to the blog name.) A lot of the guitar stands out though, not because of swill solos, but rather eccentric hammer ons and slides that give it an extra pizzaz, rather then over-the-top solos that drag the songs out.

 

Now, I have to bring up the lyrics that Luke Pritchard wrote for this record. Now, I'm definitely not saying that the lyrics sucked, but compared to that of Matchbox (From Inside In/Inside Out) and other examples from that record and various EP's they released. I mean, Inside In/Inside Out was just far superior lyrically, because on Konk, Luke wrote songs like Do You Wanna which was a great guitar song, but the incredibly repetitive chorus of "Do you wanna/Do you wanna/Do you wanna make love to me?" It just gets hard to listen to after a minute and a half of the same fourteen words over and over again.

 

I do actually suggest buying this record. But, I'd get a better feel for the Kooks prior to doing so, because I didn't really think this was the Kooks. I give this three and a half stars, based souly on the lack of deepness in the lyrics. So, if your at the record store or BestBuy or whatever it may be, get Inside In/Inside Out first, and if you own it, get Konk, but get it with special bonus disk Rak because it has songs on it that are like the ones on the freshman record (such as Watching the Ships Roll In).

Kevin