By Jeremy Azevedo

The Kooks’ 2006 album, “Inside In/Inside Out” was one of my favorite releases of that year, and despite the fact that they are kind of lame live performers, I’ve been eagerly awaiting new material from these talented young rockers for quite some time.

“Konk” doesn’t disappoint at all, delivering more of the same vintage-y rock and roll that made the Kooks popular in the first place. Say what you will about these dudes, they’re admittedly kinda pussy, but I’ll be damned if they’re not some catchy songwriters. This is the kind of music that radio was made for; “Always Where I Need To Be” is obviously the hot single, but “Love It All” is going to be the one that drops more panties than a wash and fold clerk with hooks for hands.


Either an ad for Supercuts or a picture of The Kooks, not sure which...

The first two thirds of Konk are pretty rocking; nothing exactly new, but so expert in their appropriation of Brit-rock styles perfected by the likes of The Beatles and Oasis (obvious Kooks influences) that it’s a lot of fun to listen too. The album starts to sag toward the end with mellow, over-dramatic Coldplay type shit, but it’s easy to forgive when even those songs aren’t too bad. Nearly every one of these songs sounds kind of epic at one time or another.

I know it can be hard to differentiate between all of the many same-sounding indie bands out there today… Record companies seem to be using the “oversaturate and abandon” technique in regards to album releases these days. But I can assure you that The Kooks, despite their young age and performing inexperience, record well and stand far above most of their competition. Put down that over-hyped copy of Vampire Weekend and get Konk instead.

Score: 8 out of 10
1 if you're more of a "Beatles type" guy/girl
-1 if you're more of a "Stones type" guy/girl