Review Summary: ...yeah, don't.
Does anybody still listen to The Kooks? Forgive me for such flippancy, but the out-dated, wildly uncharismatic indie pop of England's most insincere pap purveyors has long grown the ire of just about every music outlet that has some credentials. Indeed, not even
Pitchfork or
NME are nowadays willing to stumble to such a silly level, recognizing the bands' series of daftly unappealing and all-together boring releases. In a perfect world, The Kooks would have released "Naive" as a one-off single, slowly slipped away into obscurity and left themselves with at least some mystique and sexiness. Instead, they linger like a protein fart, always making themselves aware but clearly not wanted.
Listen is no exception, with its lazily slapped together artwork and hysterically bad attempt at subliminally convincing people to get people to give it a go. There's little redeeming to appreciate, and it f
ucking shows on the sub-Gospel of "Around Town", topped only by the worst song Franz Ferdinand never made, "Forgive & Forget". Synthpop pops up on the anemic whimpers of "Westside", and a soppy piano ballad is there to break the flow on "See Me Now", where casually, England's most obnoxious throw out a bit of homophobic anxiety ("I dated a girl who liked other girls", lovely). This cacophony of awkwardness never relents, and by the time
Listen stumbles to "Sweet Emotion", you think there might be some reprieve
if it's a cover of the Aerosmith staple. Surprise- It's another blast of Sheerahn mimicking sub-sexiness, riddled with misplaced confidence and cringe-inducing one-liners that subscribe to every possible known cliché. As a piece of art,
Listen fails in almost all aspects. It's characteristic of The Kooks; never in style, always tepid and vacant in self-awareness. Praise them for anything, it's being consistent at
that.
