Cold War Kids – Behave Yourself EP
January 19th, 2010
Downtown Records
Score: 4.9
From the very beginning of this new EP from Cold War Kids, it seems apparent that the band are looking back towards their debut Robbers & Cowards as opposed to trying to perfect the stumbling progressions they attempted on the disappointing Loyalty To Loyalty. ‘Audience’ is a good if unremarkable return from the band striving to win back listeners who jumped onto tunes such as ‘Hang Me Out To Dry’ and ‘We Used To Vacation’. With the pounding piano chords and Nathan Willett’s soulful, unmistakable vocals at the fore, it’s a reminder of what the band could be capable of, but has largely failed to realize. Willett’s vocal chords are the band’s greatest strength but things never really get going here. ‘Audience’ threatens to let loose but never really gets the hairs on the back of your neck moving like the first time you heard ‘Hang Me Out To Dry’. A couple more songs that could easily be lifted from the Robbers & Cowards sessions follow and while again ‘Santa Ana Winds’ and ‘Coffee Spoon’ are decent tunes, they just can’t manage to reach the profound levels Cold War Kids are obviously trying to get to. ‘Coffee Spoon’ has some lovely touches of crooning layered vocals but comes across as a bit Walkmen-lite. ‘Sermons’ is simply a reworking of the secret track at the end of Robbers & Cowards, while CD bonus track ‘Baby Boy’ will leave record buyers a little disillusioned as to why they waited a month to get the physical copy of the EP as it is merely 38 seconds of an improv studio jam. If Behave Yourself is any indication of where the next full length release from Cold War Kids is headed, then you are probably best served sticking with the band’s debut. This is not a complete disaster, it’s just rather unremarkable and that is something a band featuring these kind of vocal talents shouldn’t be.
Matthew James