It’s official, we’re old.
There are certain songs that take you back to a specific moment in time while simultaneously making you feel as old as Grandpa Simpson.
The Kaiser Chiefs infectious debut album Employment is a decade old this week and Irish fans definitely played this pop-punk record on repeat during those late-night parties, it reached No. 2 in the charts.
Here are 5 of our favourite tracks from their breakthrough record.
The Modern Way
One of the more conventional songs on the album as the guitars, synth and drums are kept to a minimum while that trademark cowbell chimes in on almost every beat.
It seems like a Britpop tradition that bands have to complain about the city and environment that they live in and Kaiser Chiefs are no different here. Oasis did it with Rock n’Roll Star, Blur crafted an entire album from this theme on ‘The Great Escape’ and now it was Ricky Wilson’s turn.
The frontman asks, “could you tell me in three words or more, it’s the only way of getting out of here” but he’s clever enough to wrap the miserabilist lyrics around what could be the band’s most ‘stadium-friendly’ song.
You Can Have It All
The first four songs on this album start at such a breakneck speed that it’s impossible to blame a listener for needing a few minutes to sit down, relax and let the album breathe.
This track perfectly captures what the Kaiser Chiefs got right on Employment, merging Britpop sensibilities with the more mellow and soft harmonies associated with The Beach Boys’ unique brand of surfer-rock.
Listening to this song again, you get the impression that it sounds like a deliberate mix of The Kinks’ very English settings, The Beach Boys’ vocal harmonies and Damon Albarn’s ‘cheeky chappy’ persona – especially in the lyric, “it’s not my fault, I don’t care, I don’t regret a single thing”.
Everyday I Love You Less and Less
The album was prone to too many ‘Ooh’s, Ah’s and Na’s’ but that’s also one of its main strengths and the biggest reason why the band seemed to latch with festival goers.
There’s a time for deep, meaningful and complex lyrics but songs like this don’t usually resonate with boozy music fans who just want to have a good time and find something that they can dance and sing along with.
This opening track is joyous, upbeat and an absolute rush from the very first moment that the opening synth notes are played. Kudos to the band in how they manage to build the track until it lifts off at the 0:57 mark before dropping the beat again.
Oh My God
Arguably the most interesting song on the entire album because it feels almost like two tunes merged into one.
The first half begins with that bass-heavy, hip-swaying rhythm. You would almost expect this to be the song where teenage boys ask girls to dance to in Indie clubs.
The song takes on a heavier, more rousing and headbanging quality on 01:15 as Wilson belts out the chorus over some thundering drums and driving guitars.
You have to admire the lead singers ability to draw the listener in with those long pauses, building screams and rising octaves. You can almost picture people at concerts waiting and waiting until that moment of lift-off before they can all jump up and down in unison.
I Predict A Riot
Who would have thought that a song about a boozy night out in Leeds would have been chosen to open the Live 8 concert in Philadelphia?
This being said, it would be a very churlish soul that couldn’t help but feel re-energised after hearing this tune.
Like the Arctic Monkeys and Bloc Party, the band were clever enough to write songs about the experiences that their own fans were having on the weekends.
Drunk people on the streets, stupid fights, scrums for taxis, late night chippers and dodgy characters on the street all feature here but it’s the moment when the guitars merge during the chorus that makes this song stand out more than any others on the album.
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