Velociraptor is the fourth album by Indie rock band Kasabian. I’ve never listened to a full Kasabian album before, I’ve heard a few songs here and there and they were good, my favourite being the great Club Foot from their debut. Among the British alt/indie rock bands of the 2000’s while they aren’t as good as Muse they sure are a hell of a lot better than Snow Patrol or Kaiser Chiefs. But anyway, onto the album.
The album starts up good with “Let’s Just Roll Like We Used To” which is certainly like most Kasabian I’ve heard, with a emphasis on Strings and Trumpets. Nevertheless, it’s still good and certainly better than “Days Are Forgotten” which is let down by annoying backing vocals. “Goodbye Kiss” embraces the strings again and it makes for a great song. This goes into “La Fee Verte” which seems to be mostly about psychedelics of some sort, as shown by the lyrics and the rather trippy background, it’s no very good really. But it is definitely made up for by the title track which doesn’t let up, there’s constantly going on and it’s definitely one of the album highlights, the lyrics are… well about getting eaten by a Velociraptor but the music makes up for any musical shortcomings. “Acid Turkish Bath is one of the trippier songs and also the longest, it is a decent tune and seems to follow the “strings = good” theme on this album.
I Hear Voices sounds like the band embracing synthpop, the inclusion of the keyboards is a good thing, it would sound like MGMT if it wasn’t for Tom Meighans distinctly British sounding vocals.
Re-Wired is one of the most obvious to release as a single with a punchy catchy chorus. Man Of Simple Pleasures’ bass sounds a lot like “Clint Eastwood” by the Gorillaz. The song doesn’t really go anywhere, the energy’s just not there. Switchblade Smiles again uses the electronics but incorporates them with the standard Kasabian style, Tom Meighans vocals alternating between a monotone sounding rather out of it and than a punchy approach with the drums ringing out loudly and the guitar mostly providing pseudo metal backing. Switchblade Smiles is, apart from the title track, probably the rockiest song on the album. The album ends with Neon Noon which is the weirdest sounding song on the album, it’s carried along by a weird sounding keyboard, it’s reminiscent of the very, VERY early work of The Human League mixed with Kraftwerk.
Overall, is the album any good? Absolutely, It proves Kasabian are the best british band around right now (I can’t say wherever it’s the Album of The Year as I haven’t listened to much at all from this year) and right now would rank amongst my top 100 albums of all time.
73/100
