Cold War Kids – ‘We Used To Vacation’ (V2) Released 27/11/06

Cold War Kids are one of the bands you feel you should love, but can’t yet. Their gigs are attended by men in beards, loved by readers of The Guardian and listened to on antique record players. ‘We Used To Vacation’ is a ramshackle slice of Americana with soul and charisma - a bloody fine start we think. Unfortunately this is a 4 track EP and the other 3 tracks are blander than watching constant repeats of Heartbeat in solitary confinement. ‘Expensive Tastes’ and ‘In Harmony, In Silver’ are essentially the same song - both long, drawn out mope-a-thons that drag along at a snails pace. ‘Quiet Please’ has a lot more about it but still seems to want to punish the listener for some unknown crime. On the basis of the title track alone Cold War Kids could be great but based on the whole package you had better take a dose of Prozac before joining them.