The Kooks Play It a Little Too Safe on ‘Let’s Go Sunshine’

A dozen years have passed since the Kooks broke through to the forefront of mid-noughties indie music with bouncy rock riffs and catchy Britpop tunes. At the time, they were the perfect breakthrough act: a little sensitive, a little carefree, and genuinely skilled at putting together an album neither too soft nor too hard. The Kooks were just right, an accessible group that wasn’t worried about being too cool – and was all the more fun for that effortlessness.

Let’s Go Sunshine, the Kooks’ first album since 2014, sounds like the good old days to a point, simplicity still key to the band’s charm – sometimes to a fault, as in the predictability of lyric “the kids are not all right” on the politically pointed “Kids” – but the group has not spent the last years totally stagnant. While the album’s mid-tempo softness gives it a similar tone to 2006 debut Inside In, Inside Out, the sound is richer and more polished, the DIY feel totally gone. 2014’s Listen, while drastically sharper and higher in terms of energy, is much closer to Sunshine in terms of sheer technical aspects; both albums derive more color from the production values at hand.

The basic style of Let’s Go Sunshine, though, sets it apart from previous albums. The Kooks’ newest release offers an anthemic take on garage rock, with lead singer Luke Pritchard often joined by a full ensemble of harmonious background vocalists who know how to stretch any lyric into a life-affirming moment. This is as true on radio-ready “Four Leaf Clover” as it is on “Pamela”, a song that starts out sounding like a classic rock hit but still slips into a group chorus of “na na / na na na” – a classic, toothless crowd-pleaser. Though positivity is hardly out of character for a Kooks chorus, it often feels unsubstantial, both on “Pamela” and elsewhere, the simplicity devolving into cliches and losing what lyricism and creativity the Kooks once had.

This is not entirely unprecedented, nor is it strictly a negative; no one is coming to the Kooks to have a bad time, and there are worthwhile moments that stand out as sincere. “Weight of the World” is one of these, a heartfelt apology for a vague offense that sees Pritchard pushing himself past the easy notes and into a Dylan-esque state of vocal abandon that suits the depth of agony the song means to convey.

Final track “No Pressure” goes in the opposite direction, hearkening back to all the things we first loved about the Kooks and adding Beach Boys-style summer vibes to it. “No Pressure” is breezy, bright, and delightful, reminding longtime listeners that this is, indeed, the same band that kicked off its first album singing about falling in love at the seaside. It’s a much-needed balm to ease the discomfort of what is a sometimes pleasant but ultimately uneven album – not one worth hating, by any means, but not one that shows the Kooks’ best qualities, much less takes them to another level.