On Employment, raffish, trilby-clad young Leeds quintet Kaiser Chiefs prove themselves the logical heirs to the Britpop throne previously warmed by the likes of Blur and Supergrass, twinning expectant verses with rollicking choruses and generally acting very much like indie-rock's latest swaggering young Jack the Lads. There's no doubt, the Kaisers know their rock history: "Oh My God" and "Every Day I Love You Less and Less" barrel along with something of Madness' playful charm, while "You Can Have It All" and the lush "Caroline, Yes" appear to be conscious nods to the sleepy, harmony-laden Californian pop vision of Brian Wilson. The lyrics of frontman Ricky Wilson, however, are rooted in a very English sensibility--one often traditional and occasionally, bizarrely archaic: "Walking through town is quite scary/ It's not very pretty, I tell thee," he gasps on adrenaline-fuelled urban nightmare "I Predict A Riot". It's the sort of pleasingly unusual idiosyncrasy that sees Employment stand out from the fashionable indie pack, and assuming the Chiefs can continue to keep their foibles the right side of irksome, any attitude is thoroughly justified. --Louis Pattison
Kaiser Chiefs
Employment
[Universal; 2005]
Rating: 6.7
I've never understood why British bands obscure their accents when they sing, but they've been doing it for ages-- at least since "She Loves You". Recently, however, there seems to be a mini-wave of UK acts brandishing their accents with a frequency last heard in the early days of post-punk.
To these American ears, those vocals are part of what makes the Futureheads and Bloc Party sound as good as they do. Kaiser Chiefs are another of these groups, although their first album, Employment, isn't in the same league as the debuts from either of their above-mentioned countrymen. One reason for this is that the band keeps the energy level constant over the course of the entire disc. There's plenty of variety in the material-- with different rhythmic feels and tempos-- but every song is approached with the same kind of in-your-face ebullience as the others, an approach that grows tiring.
Still, it's deadly entertaining in bursts-- especially if you pick out the right bursts. There are a handful of potential singles that make Employment worth the trip. Chief among them is "Na Na Na Na Naa", a song that rockets along on Manfred Mann pianos, setting the workmanlike harmonies of the verses against the titular falsetto hook. Kaiser Chiefs seem most comfortable at a sort of medium boil with big, energetic harmonies, Moog squiggles, and mild guitar/keyboard interplay. They can unleash an anthem when they choose, like "Modern Day"-- the only song on the LP that is truly dynamic. Its fluid verses are the most spacious, unforced passages on the record, and there's a palpable sense of build prior to the towering chorus. Admittedly, the song also makes me picture band members asking for more cowbell in the monitor during recording, but that's also part of its charm.
Opener "Every Day I Love You Less and Less" sets the tone with its tale of a guy who's so over his ex-girlfriend that he feels obliged to tell her how great his life is without her (in other words, he's pining). The band's spirited attack sells the track hook, line, and sinker. It's a shame that enthusiasm becomes exhausting by the record's end.
-Joe Tangari, March 16, 2005
Review by Heather Phares
Inspired by that moment sometime in the late '70s when punk gave birth to new wave (and looked back to the heyday of '60s mod for inspiration), the Kaiser Chiefs' debut, Employment, expands on the sharp, sussed sound of their singles in surprising ways. A look at London life and its discontents, Employment is a remarkably ambitious debut album that aspires, right down to its cheeky liner notes and graphics, to be the Parklife or All Mod Cons of the 2000s. While it doesn't quite reach those heights, it does have its fair share of memorable songs. Chief among them is the one-two punch of "Everyday I Love You Less and Less," a tightly wound "get lost" song that seamlessly mixes the band's punky guitar-bass-drums attack with synths and drum machines, and their signature single, "I Predict a Riot," another prime example of the band's barbed, pissed-off pop. "Saturday Night" is another standout; with its brassy stomp and lyrics like "watching the boys on their motorbikes/I want to be like those guys," it's a Quadrophenia-like understanding of what it is to be lonely in a crowd. On songs like moody-yet-stylish "Modern Way" and the cheeky, contradictory "Na Na Na Naa," the Kaiser Chiefs sound so effortlessly "on" that it's something of a surprise when Employment begins to lose momentum. Despite its pretty '60s pop melody, "You Can Have It All" drags a bit, while the vaudeville-tinged "Time Honoured Tradition" and "Born to Be a Dancer" are too precious and theatrical for their own good. Although it's not among their best songs musically, and its Beach Boys piss-take title is a little annoying, "Caroline, Yes" is one of the Kaiser Chiefs' more interesting bits of songwriting: on the surface, the narrator is upset because the other guy took Caroline away from him, but what really gets him is that the other guy is "everything I want to be in my life." Likewise, Employment ends with "Team Mate," a tantalizingly short character sketch that is also the band's best ballad. The Kaiser Chiefs' ambition is a double-edged sword: it's admirable that they wanted to branch out in so many directions on their first full-length, but it might have been a better -- or safer, at least -- move to stick to the amazing rockers that made their name in the first place. Employment is an uneven but still very promising debut that suggests that one day the Kaiser Chiefs will pull off something even more ambitious.
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