The Kooks: Konk

The Kooks couldn't have

chosen a more ironic band name if they tried. There's a long, venerable

tradition of harmless British eccentrics—amateur stamp enthusiasts and

custard obsessives litter Agatha Christie novels and Kinks songs

alike—but musically, The Kooks have nothing in common with well-loved weirdoes

like Ian Dury. Instead, their second album fits squarely into the

Libertines-fixated mainstream of NME-approved buzz bands.

Don't care for their ska-tilting, strummy acoustic guitars and benign rockers Half

a dozen interchangeable ensembles will be along shortly. To pass the time until

then, enjoy their diverse lyrical interests: On "Love It All," for example, the

chorus is "She said 'love it all, love it all, love it all.'" On the next song,

"Stormy Weather," they offer "Yes, it feels like love, love, love." There's

nothing inherently offensive about The Kooks: They're reasonably tight, and

each song is just melodic enough to seem catchy until its memory is erased by

the next. Lousy lyrics alone don't kill them (Coldplay lived), but a surfeit of

competitors does: The fact that they have American distribution instead of,

say, The Ordinary Boys is little more than an accident. The Libertines were, at

least briefly, experts at derivative synthesis; poorly derived from a

derivative, The Kooks add little to the mix.