The Kooks - Konk (2008)

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"Inside In/Inside Out" was a highlight of 2006, there is just no doubt about it. The album was on continuous rotation and I was hoping "Konk" would be the same.

See the Sun is a great start to the album, Luke sings desperately “I’ve been good to you” before breaking out into some nice Kooks-esque riffs. However, it is soon topped by Always Where I Need To Be (oh how I have worn that song down!).

All those “do do do dododododo’s”, how could a girl resist?! However that is where I soon landed myself in a pickle. A musical conundrum if you will. What happens when a song goes on such a heavy personal?

Well...the rest of the album just doesn't seem as good anymore.

Mr. Maker is works well enough (which of course means that "Konk" passes the '3 Good Songs Needed To Buy An Album' rule), but oh, how it falls on it's cute little indie rock face!

Do You Wanna is the most unnecessary song known to man/woman. The Kooks aren’t known for their profound lyrics or spellbinding ingenuity, they’re known for some catchy riffs and a descent good-time tunes; but this is just flat-out disappointing. It’s well known that, as most rock musicians gain some ground, they also gain an ego (unless they already had one to begin with). So any song that asks ‘do you wanna make love to me/ I know you wanna/ I know you wanna make love to me’ changes a bands entire image.

It’s just a tad wanky.

That song was enough to turn me off the entire album. Perhaps I’m being a little harsh because, in fairness - it does pick up. Actually, all the songs that follow Do You Wanna are quite listenable. I think my point is, it just isn’t as good as their previous effort.

After reading that they had around 80-90 songs prepared, its disappointing that some of the ones that appear on "Konk" were chosen, I wonder if the rest were any better, and if not, it’s a worry that these ones were considered the best. They say second albums are always hard to perfect because its hard to live up to the expectations created from the first, the only comfort we can take in this is that the third album is bound to be better than this one. 

RATING: 2 out of 5

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