Kasabian – Empire Review

Taking up the reigns of toxic music traits left behind by Oasis but without the personality to inflict any charm on listeners, Kasabian returned with Empire. Dull and trivial experiences from their music were no surprise after the flatlining, nostalgic qualities of their debut. By the time Empire rolled around, they were already Gods among bucket hat wearers and shifting them from such a spot would prove impossible. Unless the band imploded there was no change on the cards. There is nothing snooty about the fact Kasabian had a clear target in mind yet could not bring themselves to sound all too bothered about the mediocre bar they set. Their title-track opener is a messy exploration of their overlapping instrumentals and a buried vocal performance gives the band at least a fighting chance as they try and move along from the embarrassing spectral fears in the final verses.  

Shoot the Runner marks another repetitive ordeal from Kasabian which lingers on the mind because it maintains its easy access yet empty thoughts as a victory rather than a sleek failure of implanting personality in music. FIFA soundtrack songs and nothing more than that. For Kasabian to shake the boneless Oasis allegation they would need to provide a song which did not sound like Noel Gallagher had suffered a throat infection. At least his tracks, as nonsensical as they can be, have a sense of place and provide an insight into the instincts which drive his lyrical experiences. For Kasabian the same cannot be said and the likes of Sun / Rise / Light / Flies, for all its repetition of those four disconnected ingredients, is a key indicator of how brutal, how tiresome, the band can be. Where its constant whirrs of instrumental interjections fail to mount any surprise is matched by a reduction of our patience. How much more can Kasabian get away with when what they do is very little? 

They verge on noise rock and anti-music effects with Apnoea. A lack of breathing would certainly get us closer to removing ourselves from the endurance test of Empire but there is no luck for those in the land of the living as the sickly tones of By My Side try and inject some heartfelt, disturbed life into the mix. Kasabian has a routine heaviness to their music which they cannot control because they see every song as a potential anthem – though none of their build-up would ever give them the scope to do so. It is something the singles ahead of new album, Happenings, has suffered from. This is a long-running issue regardless of who sits in as frontman. Stuntman may be the only good grab from this album and even then, is riddled with problems from its inability to keep a solid tempo to the muffled vocal performance from Tom Meighan who once more has the attitude of a parka-wearing wannabe who would rather be elsewhere. 

Eleven songs never sounded so whining and dull. After the possibilities laid out by the middle-of-the-road Stuntman, it is back to primitive thoughts and achingly weak pieces like Search & Destroy. Not even their wails of spaghetti western-like quality on closer The Doberman can save Empire from crumbling. Like the historic British invasions it appears to tie itself to in its half-hearted flag bashing, Kasabian’s second record hears the band fall to their knees for even the vaguest chance of change. Miserable stuff from a band who bent like the human embodiment of a palm tree the second they had a platform to challenge or engage a new style for a genre which, at the time of this release, was in dire need of a championing voice to focus listeners and other artists alike. Kasabian fails to take up arms against proper or at least interesting societal values and provides not a reactionary piece but an inward, selfish release.