Cold War Kids
Robbers & Cowards

THE REVIEW

And here is what I personally consider one of the best albums of the year that is about to end: the first album by the Cold War Kids, a Californian quartet originating from that Fullerton (situated between the fading Orange County and the Los Angeles suburbs) that gave us so much in hardcore matters: but rather than Adolescents and Agent Orange, these young musicians are indebted to folk of Dylan, to Jeff Buckley (listen closely to the vocals), even to soul music.

Indeed, as there's no other way to define tracks like the opening "We Used To Vacation": a piece that springs directly from the soul, among a mesh of piano and drums, and a guitar that sneaks in, while Nathan Willett's voice grows in intensity narrating stories of people who simply "can't make it", who remain on the margins of our world. Or like "Tell Me In The Morning", which starts in a "normal" way, as any indie band might sound, only to soar and then suddenly end, almost breaking. "Hair Down" has an "a cappella" start, where you can even sense the tremor in the singer's voice, while the chords of "Hospital Beds" have an almost embarrassing beauty.

Forget the "piano rock" (an indecent definition, I know) from the charts of bands like The Fray or Keane: if you are looking for a splendid yet tragic album, angry and in a certain sense even committed in narrating the drama and decay of a whole small microcosm called America, it's towards the work of the Cold War Kids that you should turn your attention.