August 14, 2007

Kula Shaker

Strangefolk

2 / 10 It’s possible that no album has arrived at NME Towers on more of a hiding to nothing than ‘Strangefolk’. For younger readers, Kula Shaker were eminently punchable mid-’90s toffs with an irritating line in Indian spirituality-obsessed psychedelia, and, in Crispian Mills, the most instantly hateworthy frontman who ever lived. Depressingly, the vaguely impressive Verve-isms of opening track ‘Out On The Highway’ suggest we may be forced into the most unlikely critical coddling in music journalism history, but as soon as Mills indulges his inner hippy on ‘Second Sight’, the die is cast. The title track sounds like it is vocalised by the female speech function on a Mac’s TextEdit facility and is roughly the worst thing ever made, yet it’s still only the third-worst track on the album (‘Great Dictator (Of The Free World)’ and ‘Dr Kitt’, in case you’re wondering). ‘Strangefolk’? Shitberks.

Pete Cashmore

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