Robbers and cowards

Description

In the vein of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, to whom critics have not failed to compare them in admiration, the Americans of Cold War Kids come together to create the energetic post-rock that fills this first album, which compiles their early EPs and two new compositions. As much galvanized by estimable artistic appetites as by a faith in the Christian religion that they take great pleasure in displaying, singer Nathan Willett (also a pianist and guitarist) and his bandmates play with conventions but take themselves, we won't complain, less seriously than Radiohead, whom they also end up evoking, in their quest for the extraordinary. Slightly quirky (Saint John), a bit melancholic (Passing The Hat), Robbers & Cowards stumbles a bit over itself but starts from such a good sentiment that trying it is to risk adopting it.
Like Talking Heads in their time, Cold War Kids violently rework the rock legacy to draw out something beautiful. An ambitious approach in service of a much more original rock without a safety net than the average, of which Willett, who does not hesitate to propel his voice where Jeff Buckley perched his, is the main craftsman.