Indie rock quartet Cold War Kids embodies the essence of cool, building its image on a carefree but poignant sound and personal styles rounded out with plaid button-downs , cardigans and leather bombers. Beginning to break away from the world of the undiscovered, the Kids have attempted a more polished and produced lineup on their latest album “Mine Is Yours.”
The Long Beach natives found their signature with singles “Hang Me Up to Dry” off their debut album (“Robbers & Cowards,” 2006) and “Something Is Not Right with Me” from their sophomore record (“Loyalty to Loyalty,” 2008). Both stamped with frontman Nathan Willett’s defining, guttural vocals, “Something Is Not Right with Me” leads in with a subdued rhythm akin to that of Mika’s “Love Today,” quickly switching to a more emotional burst of rock — a transition that has come to be an expected mark of the band’s music.
“Mine Is Yours” assumably aims to launch the still relatively small-name band into a position of modern rock fame, bringing in big-name producer Jacquire King, who has worked with bands like Kings of Leon and Modest Mouse.
Cold War Kids, on their first full-lengths, have held a certain charm writing and producing all of their own music, and the self-made process has proved to lend itself to an unbridled and admirable brand.
This is not to say the 11-track album, released with DGC Records, completely abandons all traces of the homegrown Kids. However, the release does try too hard to tame and add some kind of polished unity to tracks that are born to be belted by Willett with killer accompanying riffs from guitarist Jonnie Russell.
Opening title track “Mine Is Yours” has a promising start, forcing flashbacks to Kids favorites, singing “Summer’s wind, hideout in my car / When it broke down we didn’t care / We’d figure out another way to get me there.” However, the carefree tone continues on into an almost nauseating chant of “What is mine is yours,” setting the out-of-character theme of the entire track list.
“Louder Than Ever” doesn’t do much to help the Kids’ case, taking solid lyrics and a promising chorus and turning them into a jumbled mess, sounding something like a high school garage band gearing up for its next big gig. Between the incessant cymbal and offbeat arrangement, Willett holds back, boxing his voice into a less-than-great standard.
It’s not all bad, though. Three tracks in, “Royal Blue” begins to redeem the once unmatchable rockers, slowly rolling in with a stripped-down Willett, backed up by a chilled-out bongo drumbeat. And, 35 seconds in, it all picks up with a cool and catchy punch of Cold War flavor. Willett bounces back and forth between his two personas — slow-paced indie songster and wacky yet ingenious belter — with a sick guitar solo from Russell and a paced clap, beginning in the bridge, filling out the winning number.
“Out of the Wilderness,” is a little eerie but nonetheless inventive, bringing percussion to the foreground and muting a powerful Willett to create a rather epic effect. This is another album gem, along with “Broken Open.”
Each song on “Mine Is Yours” has value, with little bits and pieces of the arrangements and sounds glimmering with crazy potential. The biggest mistake of the record was trying to polish and produce concepts that are far beyond the mainstream.
The album’s cover, with “Mine Is Yours” aimlessly scribbled in turquoise, green, orange and black crayon, doesn’t reflect the same practiced sound on the tracks. Cold War Kids are meant to be untamed and need to leave the polishing to themselves, not outside producers.