Kasabian’s eighth studio album ‘Happenings’ was released last Friday via Columbia Records. It’s the second album post-Tom Meighan and was produced by Serge Pizzorno and Mark Ralph (Sub Focus / Rag n Bone Man).
*banner image credit: Neil Bedford
Artwork courtesy of MBC PR
Despite 2022’s number one album, ‘The Alchemist’s Euphoria,’ there was no escaping its frontman-sized hole baggage. The focus should have been on the quality of ‘ALYGATYR’, ‘LETTING GO’ and ‘CHEMICALS;, instead,theret seemed to be constant questions and opinions about their past.
As such, the approach to the ‘Happenings’ release had the air of a last-chance saloon. A once truly great creative force was in danger of becoming a heritage act if this didn’t land.
There is a directness to ‘Happenings’, a real trimming of the fat at just twenty-eight minutes long, which serves it well. Every couplet a hook, no middle-eights, Pizzorno has written an album that Record Label bosses in the ‘60s would have killed for.
‘Darkest Lullaby’ and ‘Algorithms’ bookend the album with melodies so pure that any weight of expectation has seemingly dissipated. ‘Darkest Lullaby’, lyrically beset with self-doubt and heartbreak (“Oh, I don’t where I’m going now…I was afraid we got so high), they use the dancefloor, via the disco licks of Marr and Rodgers and the rock ‘n’ roll funk of Vanilla Fudge as route of escape. ‘Algorithms’ is blessed with the spirit of future tour buddies The Streets’ ‘Weak Become Heroes’ and Lou Reed’s simplistic classic ‘Perfect Day’. It’s the sound of the outsiders marching to victory against the odds once again. As Pizzorno croons “This this one for the weirdos / One day we’ll be heroes”, the marginalised, the dreamers, and those who believe in building things up emerge from the shadows to regain humanity's innocence. For too long, those seeking to destroy have halted progression in all walks of life, but, with ‘Algorithms’ soul and the recent election in the UK, a turning point with hope looming has surfaced.
Where ‘Darkest Lullaby’ is the sound of ecstasy giving freedom on the dancefloor, the former single ‘Call’ is the sound of the devil enticing you to it. The colossal, dirty 00s breakbeat demanding your attention (“come on, make your move, there's nothing left to prove”) is followed by Pizzorno’s blissed-out Balearic vocals and keys, which put you through hyperspace and blow you out the other side a better person. ‘Coming Back to Me Good’ has a sun-kissed easiness and the tenderness of a friend nursing you through tough times and trips. Whereas ‘Hell of It’ leans into the bombastic riffs of ‘N.E.R.D’ and Roots before fading into a heavenly synth release. Together, they help build a band rediscovering its soul among people who are losing control, a realm in which Kasabian has always thrived.
On ‘G.O.A.T’ and ‘How Far Will You Go’, Kasabian remind everyone they are still the creative force we wondered they could be before the album's release. The former, diving into the dystopian beats of the debut and the heavy psyche guitars of ‘Empire’ to conjure the albums outstanding moment and Pizzorno’s finest vocal to date. As epic as Stranger Things and majestically warped as a Moon Duo solo aid the punk rock rhetoric well. As Pizzorno decrees “cause you know it’s true / You could be the greatest of all time”, a flurry of images ranging from Lydon to Strummer/Jones to Morrissey/Marr to Gallagher to Wire raising souls to be whoever the fuck they want to be is released to the world. ‘How Far Will You Go’ somehow manages to add layers to Kasabian’s more riotous catalogue. They summon a venomous firepower which conjures a world where Jamie T and Chuck D spit venom alongside Andrew Innes and the Stooges blasting a hole into the sun! Approach with caution!
Kasabian and Pizzorno, in particular, have rediscovered their working-class glory on this record. They’ve brought the obscure to the masses once again. Every track is a single, and every verse is a chorus. Intense but never overbearing, catchy but never trite, this is a tour de force of a record from a band written off. It’s not a comeback, but it’s going to dazzle the masses and quieten the chin-strokers!