but they have clearly figured out what that something was and changed it on their new EP, Behave Yourself.
The Cold War Kids may have sung Something is Not Right With Me but they have clearly figured out what that something was and changed it on their new EP, Behave Yourself.
The four-song set - five if you buy the physical CD - meant to prepare audiences for a full album over the summer, features two standout tracks and only one dud. Just as importantly, though, the songs have varying sounds, meaning the band may have discovered how to escape the criticism that all its music sounds the same.
Audience the piano-driven opening track, captures very well the monotony and fear of a time in frontman Nathan Willett's life when he was trying to discover his path in the world.
Willett sings, You need a record you can move to?/Well
we got one / Drop the needle/ We are playing for an audience of one.
From there, the EP moves to Coffee Spoon
an ode to
the band's muse that begins sounding strikingly like a slightly heavier rendition of Matt Costa's Mr. Pitiful
but quickly turns to its guitars to create a different, darker effect.
The track may be the worst on the album, as it sounds the most like the band's old, familiar material, and is the only song on the CD that doesn't clearly represent some new direction.
On Santa Ana Winds
the quartet turns to its California roots for material, referencing the annual winds that sweep through the state as well as minimalist author Joan Didion (who was also a heavy influence on Vampire Weekend's Ezra Koenig during the recording of Contra) and the state's highways.
The song sounds more like pop music than the rest of the EP, but the bouncy instrumentals allow it to end with the lyrics, You tore me up by the roots and fell silent again / My seeds have blown around
but never land
and not sound particularly depressing.
The album's final track
Sermons, is a riff on the power of art in culture. The song
which cites Life magazine and The New York Times
