One of my favorite eccentric British bands, Kaiser Chiefs, have come up with a novel concept. They have just released 20 new songs and are asking fans to pick 10 of them for their new album, The Future is Medieval. This is no election, mind you — everyone gets their own custom mix of the CD with personalized cover art to boot! And even more mind-blowing, everyone gets to sell their custom album to the world!
To be honest, I was actually a little annoyed when I found out about all this. It was a Friday evening after a particularly long day at work. Picking ten songs from twenty, based on mere samples of the songs, seemed like a tall order. What if I left out a great song? What if that song I thought was great actually ended in three minutes of Billy Corgan screaming the letters of the alphabet?
So I decided to put off making the album until Saturday morning after I’d had a good night’s rest. The result can be streamed and purchased for download at www.kaiserchiefs.com/fadedwave.
I’m happy to report that I rather like my/their album. It’s got everything — super British pop (“Problem Solved”), synthy silliness (“Heard It Break”) and even poignant balladry (“If You Will Have Me”). I think I found a great balance between the band’s fast rockers and slow grooves. But in the immortal words of LeVar Burton, don’t take my word for it.
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