There's been a time and place for each incarnation of Cold War Kids, but this time they've done more than just change their sound - they've changed their outlook and ramped up their ambition, and the result is unexpectedly joyous.
The album is very much a Cold War Kids-sounding record, not straying from the territory already covered in their previous three LPs.
Dear Miss Lonelyhearts is more about what the band does best rather than breaking new ground, and the result is some of Cold War Kids' most promising and satisfying music since their debut.
It’s such a relief to hear the exhilarating piano-pounding of opener ‘Miracle Mile’ and realise that they’ve stopped trying to do indie rock by numbers and gone back to the sort of idiosyncratic weirdness that made us fall for them in the first place.
It doesn’t reach the heights of Cold War Kids’ debut – or even their underrated second album – but there is enough here to suggest that the sextet have still have a lot of unfinished business.
Certainly this record is relevant, and maybe even worth listening to with some regularity.
Dear Miss Lonelyhearts fails to reach back far enough to the band’s less polished, indie blues-fueled Robbers & Cowards days, but at least integrates that sound with hints of the striving-for-stadiums pop-rock Mine Is Yours offered up.
As a whole, it feels slightly temporary and detached, largely thanks to its uneven pacing and experimental streak, which after similar grievances with 'Mine Is Yours' comes as a bit of a let down.
Like The Killers... but worse
"Dear Miss Lonelyhearts" is a great album when it actually tries, yet, it's an album that only exists while it's on because once it's over it fades away as if nothing happened.
So, a couple of months ago, someone on my shoutbox mentioned this album right here. If I have to be honest with you, I had no idea of the existence of Cold War Kids, and at the same time, I just didn't care for them. But, some time passed and my girlfriend told me about these ... read more
I really don’t know what it is about this album because I know I’m not supposed to like it this much but there’s something about the impressive vocals, the huge toms and the massive reverb that works for me and creates a nice atmosphere.
#33 | / | Amazon |