Employment
Is it too early for a Britpop revival? Not on the watch of Leeds quintet Kaiser Chiefs, who just a decade after the release ofBlur's scene-making 1994 album,Parklife, offer a striking follow-up. They've hired the same producer--Stephen Street. They've studied the same influences--theBuzzcocks, theJam, theKinks. They've even picked up the same English slice-of-life themes--"I wanna wear my clothes tight/Matching jackets and a fistful of notes/New sneakers and a fresh pack of smokes," goes "Saturday Night." The resulting album,Employment, is just as catchy and captivating as you might expect, swinging from the stormy social commentary of "I Predict A Riot" to the shouty insouciance of "Oh My God." ATrainspottingsequel can't be far off.--Aidin Vaziri