The Kooks
Junk of the Heart

THE REVIEW

This “Junk Of the Heart” comes after the mediocre second album (Konk), and the Brighton band, after the definitive bassist change due to drug problems, once again relies on Tony Hoffer (Air, Beck) for production. And it shows!
The sound is, if possible, even more polished compared to their previous works and Luke Pritchard's voice, clean, spontaneous but increasingly consciously retro, enjoys simple but never (too) trivial melodies.
The album opens with the perfect single “Junk of the Heart (Happy)”, you listen to it twice, you sing it all week. The simple melody, the 60s-70s rock rhythm, and a simple and mischievous lyric have already secured its spot on the best-selling singles chart for weeks and weeks.
The album pleasantly continues with a series of Kooks-style songs among softened guitars, “easy-listening” choruses, and “70s” backups (particularly successful are “How’d You Like That” and “Taking Picture of You”); however, when you least expect it, the Kooks surprise you... it’s “Time Above The Earth,” a very sweet song, short but intense, with only Pritchard’s voice supported by a string quartet, dreamily singing about time spent above the Earth.
The rest of the album follows the more classic pop-rock direction, with an acoustic ballad “Petulia” that we will only remember because it was recorded in Italy (in Perugia), but it does not particularly move us.
The brilliant closing with “Mr Nice Guy” with a tribute (or perhaps plagiarism?) to the Beatles’ “Twist and Shout” and the use of synthesizers and electronics leave us imagining a future marked by continuity but perhaps with a hint of modernity, just to remind us that we are in 2012 and that you’re listening to a new Kooks album.