05.
Cold War Kids
Loyalty To Loyalty

Somewhat unbelievably, I think this might actually be as good as their near perfect debut, Robbers And Cowards (which is in retrospect, I think, now my album of 2007, having endured enough to have overtaken last year’s list topper by Against Me!). Yet despite being that good, Loyalty To Loyalty suffers just because it came second, with a weight of expectation and with a sound I’d already heard. On its own merits, this perhaps should be number one this year, but I simply don’t play it as much as the four albums above it. Every time I do, though, I’m astounded by the quality on show. This is, unexpectedly, an even sparser, barer record. There is so little going on, but that’s what makes the Cold War Kids so good, they know what’s crucial to any given song, and don’t provide anything else. The droning ‘Avalanche In B’ should be awful, but somehow it’s brilliant. The schizophrenic piano of ‘Every Valley Is Not A Lake’ is part depressing blues, and part rockabilly shuffle, and is a standout. The best track though, is the bass driven ‘Mexican Dogs’, which all the way through has something nasty seething underneath it. An album that confirms that the Cold War Kids are here to stay, somewhere near the top of the tree.