Jeff Preston Music Michelle Rivera Cold War Kids

Cold War Kids

Loyalty To Loyalty

White Sripes - Explosions In The Sky

Cold War Kids sophomore effort, Loyalty to Loyalty is angst ridden poetry paired up with blues-rock sounds akin to that of The White Stripes. Their music combines the political-as the name Cold War Kids would suggest-with the abstract. Loyalty to Loyalty has a raw and sometimes deconstructed sound. As in the track Avalanche In B wherein the instruments seem to be playing different songs all at once and just as you get lost in it, they magically melt into one song and bring you back on board.

Something Is Not Right With Me is the perfect outcast's anthem. It's fast and rhythmic with passionate vocals that beg for you to shout them out along with the track. Keep that energy up for politically charged Welcome to the Occupation. “I'm like Sisyphus in the sun. I give up raising your kids America. You treat 'em like an obligation. Welcome to the occupation.” Not too many bands can successfully incorporate Greek mythology in their music. Strip away the instruments and much of Cold War Kids clever lyrics could stand alone at a spoken word performance.

The Kids step away from their abstract art approach to their songs with Dreams Old Men Dream, which along with the latter two tracks mentioned is one of the three strongest songs from Loyalty to Loyalty. It is arguably the most radio friendly, with less cryptic lyrics and a more pulled together sound than the other tracks. The Fullerton, CA based band comprised of Nathan Willett, Matt Maust, Matthew Aveiro and Jonathan Russell only flirt with conventional songwriting formulas but mostly keep things original by having a sound that seems to have no real formula at all. It is, unquestionably, the rock of rebels.