Red roses, leather jackets, and the inability to break from the past still guide The Kooks. A pastiche of themselves twenty years on from their sole, interesting hit, and Never/Know has the group trying, once more, to steady themselves in the ever-stormy waters of guitar rock. It is not enough to provide satisfying, background noise-like work. Previous album 10 Tracks to Echo in the Dark was as aimless as its hollow title would suggest, and the same route, that usual path the band has travelled for two decades now, is heard on Never/Know. Indie landfill, which has avoided the recycling pile because Radio X appears to have been locked out of their Spotify account. Naive remains. But where does a band with one hit and a lot of filler behind them head for their next album? The same place as the last six.
“The times are changing, but they stay the same,” is rather ironic a lyric to write for The Kooks given their two decades of stagnation. The title track, which serves as the opener too of their latest album, suggests a maturity, a growth period for the band. It never comes to light. An uneventful and passive opener, which notes the lack of change, the desire to never risk a moment, when it comes to maintaining the already cemented audience. Delicate, positive love songs of how relationships are made to make you feel bigger, not better, can be heard on Sunny Baby. Perhaps it is the need for something more than being gaslit into being right, or maybe it is the unlikeable foundation Never/Know is built on, but the tired guitar rock heard throughout is a dated throwback to when the band were big. Their messages have not evolved from there, those sincere moments are still defined by an age-old attitude of leather jackets and wearing sunglasses indoors, like Bono but without the glaucoma.
Aimless hedonism heard on All Over the World has the band try and fail to sell the rock and roll lifestyle. It may work for those who find themselves in the dregs of the guitar rock genre, those who listen to Bilk without a note of irony, but for those who know the genre has left this message, this theme, behind, Never/Know will be more disappointingly redundant than anything. Very plain metaphors, the freight train shock of meeting someone, as always, comes across as miserably plain. It is a shame too to hear it, as these early moments feature solid instrumental work. Behind the modern-day offerings, sure, but a neat log for those burning the fire of nostalgia and suggesting music has nothing more to offer these days. If They Could Only Know is a perfect example of The Kooks today. Momentum-free, friendly-sounding music which only leaves a mark if you have been listening since the start.
But that comes with not listening to anything but The Kooks since then, too. They are fast becoming a band built on nostalgia. Never/Know is not without hope, of course. China Town is a tame but sweet effort. A smart song, a sign of hope across an album of relatively tame and reliably dated guitar-dependent music. Illusions of grandeur on Tough at the Top showcase where the band believe they are, and then follow-up song Arrow Through Me, a shock devotion to the oft-forgotten Wings song, is a note of where The Kooks are. They have the longevity to throw whatever they want onto new albums, to claim it is what influenced this new creative process, even if you cannot hear the Paul McCartney influences. The Kooks are blank slates. Never/Know is a light and breezy album which boasts of being bigger than anything it does. Still, their live shows may be the closest we get to hearing Arrow Through Me on stage. It is not as if McCartney likes the song.
