Kula Shaker
Peasants, Pigs, and Astronauts
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Kula Shaker
Peasants, Pigs, and Astronauts
Columbia, 1999
RiYL: The Doors, Led Zeppelin, The Moody Blues, The Beatles |
To be fair, Peasants, produced by Bob Ezrin (Peter Gabriel, Pink Floyd, Lou Reed), shouldn't be dismissed out of hand simply for its retro angle. Indeed, if one can stomach the band's love for all things 1969, this record could satisfy greatly. Calling these songs over the top is like calling Jimmy Page a good guitarist -- kind of an understatement. The band's stylistic allegiance to Indian music is even more apparent here than it was on K singles such as "Tattva" and "Govinda," in part thanks to guest musicians like flautist Hariprasad Chaurasia and the presence of Indian instrumentation on nearly every song.
The band has some chops, and capitalizes on its guitar/bass/drums/organ lineup to good effect, but the first two tracks will be the test for tenuous listeners. "Great Hosannah" is a rockin' plea for universal higher conciousness, replete with female backup singers, bongo drums and Jay Darlington's organ flourishes. A fantastic bass-driven groove gets "Mystical Machine Gun" off to a good start, but before long the track goes right for the cliched, layered-vocal chorus (when's the last time a modern rock band recalled The Moody Blues?) and a Beatles-y middle eight. "Everybody stay calm / Don't panic, it's just the end of the world," lead singer Crispian Mills shouts in the background for no apparent reason. Thumbs down for the pointless bagpipe outtro.
The rest of Peasants, Pigs And Astronauts repeats the one-good, one-bad trend. "S.O.S." is a self-important organ-centric "freakout," marked by the lyric, "this is the age of decay and hypocrisy/sometimes I think the world isn't ready for me." Kula Shaker has some good compositional ideas, but it can't seem to avoid crossing the line between innovation and imitation. "Shower Your Love" would be playing at your prom if this was 1968, and "108 Battles" sounds so much like the Doors that one is tempted to check the liner notes for Ray Manzarek's writing credit. Even "Timeworm" sounds like a blatant attempt to re-write Zeppelin's "The Battle Of Evermore."
Aping the sounds of yesteryear here does little for a band that should by now be moving beyond such temptations. But when Kula Shaker veers off the derivative path, it is capable of penning a solid tune -- the short, acoustic "I'm Still Here" is the album's prettiest and most sincere track. "Sound Of Drums," already a hit single in the band's native England, is an above-average, melodically rich number, and "Last Farewell" is a less bombastic re-recording of "Great Hosannah." Who knows what to make of the bizarre 12-minute album closer "Namami-Nanda-nandana" or "Radhe Radhe," recorded for a film soundtrack.
Peasants, Pigs And Astronauts probably won't provide the thrills of K, and although it's already charting well in the U.K., my hunch is that U.S. listeners would rather listen to the real deals of classic rock than a capable but frustratingly unoriginal young gun.
JONATHAN COHEN | Jonathan Cohen co-created Nude As The News with his Indiana University mates Troy Carpenter and Ben French. When not traversing the globe for business and pleasure, he holds down the fort as a senior editor for Billboard in New York. Stop him and he just may ask, "what for lunch?"