****Kasabian triumph where traditional stalwarts of the 'lad rock' oeuvre fail.
Mixing the swaggering pomp of Oasis with an innovative progression that the boys from Burnage never achieved, West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum (the very name suggesting something apart from the norm) will probably be another contender for album of 2009.
'Underdog' is a monster of an introduction, Tom spitting out venomous intent from the off and a riff destined to conquer. However, second track 'Where Did All the Love Go?' is the first sign Kasabian are onto something new, a woozy chorus straight out of a time warp channeling 60's psychedelia.
Followed by an instrumental entitled 'Swarfiga' (like 'Can' on heat), you begin to wonder whether they've lost the plot completely! Then, as if to coax us back from the precipice, 'Fast Fuse' pumps through you with vigour. Just try listening to it without bowling along the pavement as if you own the street.
Yet, just when you think you're getting a handle on the album, along comes 'West Ryder Silver Bullet playing like the soundtrack to a Sergio Lione western. It has to be said that at this point, I began to worry the band were slipping into pastiche, particularly on album closer 'Happiness' with its trite "nothing more/nothing less/all we need is happiness" lyric. Yet even this ballad, with its choir cheesely chipping in right on cue, still manages to get away with it, the middle 8 rescuing your attention just when it was about to turn it's back.
'Secret Alphabets' is all Egyptian mythology and wouldn't appear out of place on 'Sgt Pepper', whereas 'Thick As Thieves' is the 'Small Faces' for a new generation. The album's influences are as clear as day but there's such a wonderful melting pot of sounds in each new track they gradually begin to transcend any 'early doors' criticism.
I'm yet to mention 'Vlad the Impaler' or top 3 single 'Fire' until now, both highlights, but then it's not really necessary. The key to this long player isn't the 'singles', which Kasabian have always managed to pull off, its everything else in between.
This isn't, nor was it ever going to be, a lyrical masterpiece or grandiose intellectual statement, yet it is a joy to listen to. Walking through the city of London on a sunny day with 'Fire' playing through your ipod headphones, makes you feel like a superstar in your very own movie. It's not often that you can say that!
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