Kaiser Chiefs - Education, Education, Education & War

Over the last 14 years Leeds lads Kaiser Chiefs have represented many things to many people. They’ve been cast as front-line soldiers of the short-lived Britpop II movement, hailed as chart-bothering, bona fide pop stars and grown to become relied upon show stealers on the festival circuit. This fortnight, their feisty and fiery fifth album Education, Education, Education & War looks set to ensure that the quintet will now be known by only two words: comeback kids.

Adopting a faster, leaner, more “bug-eyed” approach, the Kaisers’ first album since the departure of drummer and driving force Nick Hodgson starts off in rousing fashion with ‘The Factory Gates.’ A high-energy, new wave-inspired effort, their famous, homespun lyrics are still in full effect (“I never left the town I was made in/Wicker’s World, Michael Palin” croons Ricky Wilson) but there’s a feeling of freshness to it all. ‘Ruffians On Parade’ is better still. Taking its cues from Franz Ferdinand, the track features a chorus tailor-made for festival mosh-pits around the world, while ‘Coming Home’ is an infectious, misty-eyed football terrace anthem in the making.

The second half of Education, Education, Education & War doesn’t fare quite as strongly though and the plodding and slightly bizarre ‘Cannons’ and the throwaway, harpsichord-based ‘Meanwhile Up In Heaven’ lets things down a little. However, overall the record (whose title is a piss-take of that notorious 2005 speech by then British Prime Minister Tony Blair) is an undeniable return to form for the Chiefs and a strong statement of intent.