The Kooks - 'Inside In/Inside Out' (Virgin) Released 23/01/05

The Kooks don’t half have an ear for a tune. Every track on this six-track album sampler is a two minute slice of perfect hook-laden guitar pop which will wriggle under your skin like a rabid music ringworm. They’re only young – in years and as a band – but The Kooks are just right. Vocalist Luke Pritchard’s voice is precocious; gritty, organic, menacing in turns. Every tune is punctuated with a mini-guitar epic and perfectly complimented with pounding drums.

Former single, ‘Eddie’s Gun,’ is a short, sharp sunshine infused slap of a song which pisses all over the likes of the Cribs. Stampeding, hyper-active drumming, exuberant guitar, Pritchard’s bratty vocals – it’s a summer corker. Yeah, it could have corked, say, summer 95 - but what the hell - it’s perfect pop and that never goes out of date.

They may only be about the same age as arse-faced McFly, but no songs about teenage bints with overly highlighted hair for The Kooks. ‘Sofa Song,’ hears Pritchard’s low, cynical voice roll and spit out a dark, knowing ditty about loaded guns and getting laid. The Coral-esque ‘Paper Dreams,’ is warmer and more organic, mellow guitar and gentle percussion underscore personality-infused vocals.  ‘Do You Want To See The World’ returns to Pritchard’s breathy, gasping, gritty lyrics amply set off by prickly drums and that trademark splash of virtuoso guitar.

Pritchard launches into the emotion drenched ‘Naïve’ with the words: "I’m not saying it’s your fault. Although you could have done more. You’re so naïve yeah." The poor cow, he might as well have just used the ultimate boyfriend-girlfriend putdown, ‘I’m not angry – just disappointed.’ Sniping aside, it’s a jangly, wounded, paranoid little masterpiece that hisses and fizzes its way past their usual 2 minute pop barrier. Similarly, ‘Ooh La,’ signals a band not only capable of candid feel-good pop-gems – perhaps the best track of the selection Pritchard’s relentless, thrusting vocals spells out another world-weary, jaded observation: "Ooh la she was such a good girl to me. Ooh la the world just chewed her up and spat her out…” Ooh la, let’s hope the world don’t munch our Kooks and hoc ‘em up as well. They’re too good.