THE KABEEDIES - RUMPUS
I first saw the Kabeedies at Leicester’s Summer Sundae Festival in August and they were undoubtedly one of the weekend’s highlights. When I arrived home I got straight onto iTunes and bought everything they had released. And then I listened to the 8 or 9 tracks I now owned repeatedly. Like, obsessively.
With that in mind, I already know a good half of this album off by heart, and so you might be guessing that the novelty’s worn off and I’m bored by now, right? WRONG! On Rumpus the Kabeedies have managed to capture the same sense of energy and fun they exhibit live, and it makes for a great listen start to finish.
Opener Fuzzy Felt, with it’s shout-along chorus of “You’ve got four haircuts rolled into one/You’re head is heavy ‘cause your hair weighs a ton” sets the tone for the entire record. The Kabeedies sing about mail-order brides on King Canute, bored housewives on Duck Egg Blue and, on Petits Filous, about Kung Fu and, uh, a popular brand of yoghurt. This is a band which doesn’t take itself too seriously, and their attitude is infectuous.
As mentioned, I’ve already heard a number of these songs, but they definitely bear up to repeat listening (my iTunes play-count for the excellent Palindromes is pushing 30!). The newer songs are just as good, with Comic Splendor and We Make Our Own Adventures two of the album’s best tracks, with the latter especially having an insanely catchy chorus. And what’s not to love about a song called Petroleum Jelly, with the memorable hook “soft like Petroleum Jelly, my heart sang to my belly.”
Overall, this is a superb début which packs a hell of a lot into barely more than half an hour. It’s exciting, fresh, and above all fun. All together now - “We don’t need your thorax to preserve the love fill you with my aorta…”
8/10
Jed. x
