Apologies for the brackets in the title, but if even the guy who sings most of the songs can’t tell me if the word “The” is in the band name (see our interview with Thom) then what chance do I have? My main concern right now, though, is how to tell you how great this album is without sounding like I’m gushing. Tricky.
opened for Nickelback last year and they impressed a huge amount. Every bit the entertainers, they played to an arena with ease. Dropping pop tunes on a rock audience is ballsy but they’re so damn likeable that nobody cared and let themselves be swept up in the music.
Listening to KOKO you can see, or rather hear, why. This is definitely a pop album, but it is so much more than that. At first listen it’s all bubblegum and sweetness and audio hooks and catchy riffs and bounce… and then you give the lyrics a listen, and take into where some of them are from. A perfect case in point is “Panic Attack” written about the first one that Thom suffered. It’s a bouncy happy number with children singing along and it’s lovely… but here’s the twist. It’s lovely because it’s masking the panic attack. Which is what Thom (and many like him) do all the time. Bury something awful with smiles and pretence so the outside world thinks that you’re doing just fine. This is pop music, but it’s deep and it’s clever.
Even the album title seems like a throwaway fun word, but it actually stands for “Keep On Keeping On”, something Thom’s grandparents used to tell the family every time they faced a struggle. Don’t give up. The whole album is about not giving up, and the words “Keep On Keeping On” pop up frequently, not just during the title track. Which makes sense – it’s a hugely important message.
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There are so many good songs on here, in fact all of them are good, that it’s hard to pick up favourites or highlights. We could look at the guest slots – “You Again” featuring Jon “The Reverend” McClure is a good one as it’s bassist Katie Lloyd to takes over the band’s vocal duties on this one alongside the guest. With Thom taking front/centre at the gig between songs it’s easy to think he’s the lone singer when he isn’t. Lottery Winners features three with guitarist Robert Lally also throwing his voice into the mix. We also have Chad Kroeger, Frank Turner (who may as well be a member of the band by now) and Rick Witter of Shed Seven ing the party.
We could look at the ones that are a bit different… but they all are. Opener “Superpower” is rap-based and tells how being “neuro-spicy” can be beneficial. “UFO” is a beautiful, floating ballad. “Turn Around” is upbeat and happy-clappy and makes you want to sway. “Monaco” should be a Eurovision Song Contest entry, and “Three Wishes” is simply heart-wrenching. This acoustic ballad could so easily be cheesy, and in lesser hands may well have ended up that way. Lottery Winners, though, turn it into a wonderful, heartfelt and honest tear-jerker.
We’re into March and I already think that this is one of the best years for new music that we’ve had in a long time. Between The Wildhearts’ Satanic Rites and this, we’re already going to struggle to pick an album of the year. And we’ve not even got the new Machine Head one yet.
Thom was worried about reading reviews, which is understandable when you pour your soul into a work, but I told him what I was going to put, so here it is:
Nice music, for nice people, by nice people. And one album that everyone should listen to. After all, as “The Ceiling” tells us: “You deserve to be happy”.
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