- By Fred Spanner
The Kooks: Never/Know ⭐⭐⭐
Guess who's still alive, kicking, and not remotely interested in chasing TikTok trends or collaborating with AI holograms of dead rappers? That’s right, The Kooks, and they’ve just dropped an album that sounds like it time-travelled straight out of their glory days.
You could be forgiven for thinking this is a collection of unreleased B-sides from back when indie still had swagger, but it’s not. It’s new. It’s polished. And it’s unapologetically Kooks.
The title track Never Know kicks off confidently, and dripping in cool. Then If They Could Only Know grabs you by the ears and doesn’t let go. Echo Chamber slows things down, but not in a “let’s talk about feelings” kind of way, think Brylcreem and jukeboxes, a slick nod to the 50s.
And just when you think they’ve played their best hand, they whip out a cover of Wings’ Arrow Through Me. And it’s shockingly good.
This isn’t a nostalgia trip, it’s a reminder. The Kooks still know how to strut, sing, and shake things up.
