Cold War Kids, please use youtube, or other music freeway to listen to them while readin this post. They have been called the "Blog Band of 2006" with the hype surrounding "Robbers and Cowards" thier debut album, well guess what in 2006 I fell in love with them. And now its 2008, they seem to have fallen back into obscurity (so sad) and have just come out with their sophore album, "Loyalty to Loyalty" with it's first single "Something is not right with me". Yes I do own both albums, but am going to focus on "Robbers and Cowards". Maybe later I will do a "Loyalty to Loyalty" post, it surely deserves one.
I love Robbers and Cowards, in just one album it brought Cold War Kids from OMG I love that song "hang me up to dry" on the radio let's hope the DJ had a minor injury so he doesn't change the song, to Cold War kids easily one of my top three bands. I could listen to the CD on repeat, every single song, forever. When I listen to it, all the songs give me the feeling of being home. The heavy percussional beats mixed in with the constant deep guitar strumming, while Nathan Willet bangs out lilting sounds to balance out such hard noises on his keyboard, and uses a shakey verbrato voice to convey a musical story with passion. Npw I'm sure you all are thinking, okay Kristen we don't need another pansy indie skinny jeaned singer, we've got conor oberst already. 1. Conor has grown up and is no longer crying during songs. 2. The strength in the songs by Cold War Kids is astounding.
Let's start at the begining, the first song on "Robbers and Cowards", "We used to Vacation" creates a personal feeling bringing in a broken down family on the surface. But to me there is more than that, lyrics like "I promise to my wife and children that accident left everyone a little shook up, but at the meetings I felt so empty, this will blow over in time" you don't need an alcoholic in the family to understand that feeling of endless hope and unconditional love.
Alright I promise I'm not going to go one by one through the entire album but "Hang me up to dry" was the second single off the CD, and what got me into this band. Even Kate Nash has done a cover of it. As with most Cold war Kids songs, we have a heavy beat with the guitar and piano and bass creating a Monet of a backdrop for Nathan Willets vocals. I do believe this was the song that gave them the "Indie Rock with some Blues, emo, and folk" label which basically leaves labelers saying "leave your label makers at home and enjoy the music" especially since they aren't indie, they are signed. And the lyrics are also beautiful as always I would suggest reading them while not listening to that osng, they are quite interesting.
Okay for now the last song I will go through- Hospital Beds. Blah I adore this song so much. Probably my favorite all time lyrical quote comes from this "The Joy and Misery" thats probably the only thing I would ever get tattooed on my body. I couldn't tell you the connection I have with this song, I just hear it and melt. Its inexplicable until listened to. I also really like the repeated imagery in this song, "Putout the fire boys, don't stop don't stop, put out the fire on us" and so on. The way its sung together with the music it litterally puts a picture in my mind of a building on fire, with people frantically trying to put it out knowing that their efforts could very well be in vain. This song was covered by Florence and The Machines very interestingly focusing much more on a female's shakey yet strong singing.
If you can't tell I love this band, and I know david does too. We also can't wait to see which of thier albums becomes the classic (it's going to happen we know it) I say Robbers and Cowards will have itss own reprise, while david is looking forward with eager eyes to their junior and senior albums. Also I hope david will throw some more info in at this band because I haven't even touched the new album really, or songs like Old Saint John, or Passing the Hat.
-go listen to more cold war kids, and keep loving limes
