Personnel: Ricky Wilson (vocals); Andrew White (guitar); Nick Baines (keyboards); Simon Rix (bass guitar); Vijay Mistry (drums).
Audio Mixers: Michael H. Brauer; Gavin Bush.
Recording information: Maze Studios, Atlanta, GA (09/2013-10/2013); Wise Buddha (09/2013-10/2013).
The fifth long-player from the Leeds-based festival rockers with a penchant for climbing lighting rigs and crafting arm-waving anthems that fuse the anthemic scope of classic Brit-pop with the insular, progressive cynicism of early-2000s indie rock, begins with the rousing "Factory Gates," a distillation of all of those aforementioned attributes that sounds a bit like what is arguably their most well-known song, 2005's "I Predict a Riot." As arena anthems go, you could do a lot worse than the infectious, aforementioned earworm of an opener and the like-minded "Ruffians on Parade," or the propulsive and pugilistic "Misery Company," a wily and willfully melodic ode to self-deprecation that's built around a chorus of maniacal laughter. There's a refreshing, devil-may-care cavalier attitude to Education, Education, Education & War that eradicates much of the desperation that was beginning to creep in after 2007's Yours Truly, Angry Mob. ~ James Christopher Monger
Professional Reviews
Rolling Stone - 3.5 stars out of 5 -- "Kaiser Chiefs' fifth album is full of frothingly pissed-off working-class British rock, with shades of glam, pub rock, the Jam's lefty-mod broadsides and Oasis at their most soccerhooligan-y."
