Strangefolk has arrived...

After nearly a decade, one of my favorite bands from my college days has returned. Kula Shaker just had its domestic release of their third album last week, and it's one of those good news/bad news albums. The good news is that the band sounds exactly as they did when they released their second album in '99. They have retained their penchant for psychedelic pop flavored with Eastern influences. The band reunited (minus Jay Darlington as noted in a previous post,) and they still sound as if no time has passed. They are all hardcore vegans and espouse a philosophy of clean living with daily meditation, so the rigors of a rock and roll lifestyle has not touched any of the lot. Vocals are still sweet, Crispian Mills (Hayley's son) is still fast and furious on the guitar, and the songwriting is still pitch perfect pop. Here is where the problem creeps in.

As a concept, Kula Shaker always worked. Against the overwhelming tide of guitar-driven Britpop, they offered enough of a unique texture that they stood apart from the rest of the post Oasis/Blur imitators. In a crowded field, full of bands like Cast or Ocean Colour Scene, Kula Shaker stood out as some of the only people on the scene actually having fun. Then their second record came out. It was cranky, poorly sequenced, unevenly produced, and was way too political/mystical for most casual listeners to latch on to. It also suffered from one of my least favorite musical tricks. Rick Rubin was asked to produce one song on the record. That's like having Phil Spector or George Martin sit in the producer's chair for a number. On paper it sounds great, but in practice, it doesn't work. Inevitably, the Rubin song is always chosen as the single. Kula shaker followed the formula and released that particular track as the first single from the new record. I can remember going online in '98 and listening to the track streamed online. I was horrified for the actual album to come out. The song was terrible. The production was terrible. When the album arrived, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the rest sounded great. Sounded, I said. The album itself was not great. Barring a couple of really excellent songs (Shower Your Love, Great Hosannah, Mystical Machine Gun,) it was a supremely shaky record.

All that aside, I saw them at The Metro in Chicago in '99 weeks before they called it quits. I was amazed at how great they sounded live, so my shock at their demise was immediate. Here was a competent band which sounded like a cross between Hendrix and George Harrison with a dash of McCartney. Here was a band who had just walked away from the sophomore slump that every band faces (are you ready for that, Curtains? hehe) Fast forward to 2008. We now have a new Kula Shaker record. As I said above, here's where the problem creeps in.

The biggest problem with the record is not the quality of the material, the production, or performance. It lies in the fact that they made the logical follow-up to Peasants Pig & Astronauts. This record should have come out in 2000 or 2001. It sounds as if all of the development of pop music in the 2000s has been ignored. It is a very safe record for them. Treading upon the hallowed ground of "playing it safe", Kula Shaker has made a disappointingly insignificant record. I'm absolutely pleased to own it. I will still pop it in the player 5 years from now for some of the tracks, but overall I was expecting some growth in the last 9 years.

Overall, it's pretty good. Safe, but enjoyable.