Nobody ever said making a second album was easy. This is especially the case for buzz bands, and doubly bad if your debut was dubbed “critically acclaimed” by those ever-important music mags or if your tunes received a cyber thumbs up straight from the blogosphere. On their second album Konk, Brighton-based Brit-pop outfit the Kooks struggle with the age-old dilemma of the anxiety of influence. This rugged pop foursome–who borrowed their quirky moniker from a David Bowie song–cite directly from their sonic sources on their sophomore effort, drawing inspiration from the British bands of rock’s past and present, revealing very little of their unique musical point of view.
Konk is a not-too-terrible amalgamation of the Kinks’ delicate rock-infused whimsy, the brash rebellion of the Who, and the defiant growl and over-confident swagger of the now defunct Libertines. The opener “See the Sun” could be mistaken for an early track by the latter, written on one of Pete Doherty’s sober and more optimistic days. “Down to the Market” revives the teen-friendly exuberance of the Undertone’s underage classic “Teenage Kicks,” and the feigned studio intimacy of “Tick of Time” combines the beautiful wistfulness of early Kinks tracks laced with a reggae-esque lazy drawl. All in all, Konk isn’t unlistenable; in fact its dozen-or-so tracks are pleasant pop ditties that would fit perfectly as the soundtrack for a lazy summer night at the pub or as background music for a sleazy-teen romantic scene in “Gossip Girl”. But if it’s British rock you’re craving, dust off your records and stick with the classics.
