Album Review: Kasabian’s For Crying Out Loud Is A Batch Of Must-Have Rock N’ Roll Anthems
Kasabian’s For Crying Out Loud is both the album and statement needed for anyone, like myself, that wonders “Why can’t we just have a good time, already?”. This is 100% a party record that asks all drama be left on the porch before entering a house of swinging melodies, anthemic hooks, and overall feel that rock n’roll is not dead. It is just trying to live through you.
From the beginning of the album, you feel like a sonic-boom went off above you, and guitars, drums, electric basses, were vibrantly being tossed in neon sparks. Ill Ray (The King) is a juggernaut of an opener that makes Serge Pizzorno and Tom Meighan appear like a set of kings in both guitar arrangements and vocals, and sets the standard that, by now, Kasabian have mastered the art of “arena tracks”. I call those the rock n’ roll songs that you blast on cars, stadiums, and house parties at full volume to feel like you are not just entering the arena….. YOU ARE ENTERING THE PLANET! “Good Fight”, “Comeback Kid”, and “Bless This House” are instantly likable and huge in exhilaration. They include gut-busting drums, rolling guitar chords, blasting horns, choruses that sound like angels have gathered to watch and cheer the game of your life, and a classic, rock n’ roll aura that ignites listeners’ inner fighter. Thus, what makes For Crying Out Loud such an enjoyable, must-have album is that it plays for invincibility. Tom Meighan has a singing voice that is the equivalent of an army general’s battle cry; it is affirming, invigorating, and strikes to people’s eagerness to win. Yet songs like, “You’re In Love With A Psycho”, “Wasted”, and “All Through The Night”, are slightly simpler, even somber tracks that etch out the loneliness, lust, and excessiveness that can overcome a person who invests so much of themselves in a moment. Lyrically, Kasabian is cognizant that, for however much they rise their audience in heavenly instrumentals, they have to give falling dosages of reality for balance.
Although we are all told to live and breathe for the present, there is a need for balance in everything, and we have all seen the “burnt-outs” of those that approach life without consequence. In some ways, For Crying Out Loud feels like the soundtrack to a night or even relationships where the glamour of an instant overrode all future prospects, which we all need to let happen on occasion. The future is still, well, the future, and if you want your now to sound/ feel better than For Crying Out Loud is your record, which you can buy on May 5 by clicking here.
