Kasabian - Goodbye Kiss

Kasabian's previous single Re-Wired felt like a miss-step. For all that it played to the band's traditional formula, it lacked the pizazz and sheer 'Bang!' of their so far unsullied back-catalogue of fantastic singles. Kasabian were a band that built their career on consistency and never-relenting pace - their albums characterised by heady concoctions of energy and cocky swagger.

So for Goodbye Kiss, the third single to be taken from Velociraptor! they turn away from their usual path to embrace an Echo & The Bunnymen kind of pensive broodiness. But where those 80s greats had the songwriting chops and peerless command of great melodies to make such stuff work, here Kasabian just sound spent.

We buy into Kasabian for blinding big beat electronica-laced psychedelic-rock, not mellow acoustic ballads like this. If your girlfriend happens to be a Kasabian fan and you fancied some tuneful mood-music to set the tone for a romantic evening, Goodbye Kiss would be perfect - but then, that's not the majority of us.

It's a shame, because in Kasabian, we have one of the last great bands from the 2004 outburst of British rock - where all others have already begun to lose steam, they remained ploughing along at full-speed. But in the likes of Goodbye Kiss, even their time at the top seems numbered.

Goodbye Kiss is released on the 20th February.

Kasabian - Days Are Forgotten

Kasabian are never ones to let the public down. And after all, where would they be without those seething crowds to sing back every word of the likes of Club Foot to them?

No, Kasabian are one of those precious few bands who seem to live an almost symbiotic existence with their fans - feeding off their very energy and channelling it back into their latest musical creations.

Maybe this, then, is the secret of their success. The reason why they remain at the top of their game when so many others have faltered. When we covered their new teaser single Switchblade Smiles back in June we loved how it felt like a return to the darker, more brutal sounds of their first album - Days Are Forgotten feels much the same.

With its classic, jabbing, bassy guitar hook, like its predecessor, it already seems destined for the soundtracks of Top Gear episodes and sports montages.

Indeed, this is Kasabian at their most epic; a Good, The Bad, and The Ugly meets James Bond composition of anthemic proportions.

Days Are Forgotten wears those filmic influences bared on its sleeve and boy does it merit from them - the chorus is one of the band's most slick to date, a monster of a thing that screams 'hit'. Add in those eerie vocal wails and you have something completely and utterly thrilling.

Four albums in, and Kasabian still at the top of their game, you wonder how many bands would kill to get their hands on that magic formula.

The band's new album Velociraptor! is released on the 19th September.

Kasabian - Switchblade Smiles

Just look at the name of the track. Switchblade Smiles - contained within those two words is such a wonderful juxtaposition of slickly grim darkness with grinning upbeat fun. But then, isn't that what Kasabian have always done so well?

If anything, new single Switchblade Smiles is a real return to the sound of the band's first album - more electronic, more dark. Suddenly a thumping military drum beat kicks in followed by scratchy, metallic guitars, and we're away.

Chants of 'Hoo!' add to the animalistic, tribal feel of the song, as well as harking back to the band's legendary classic Club Foot. For the band to still be producing songs as good as this four albums in is a towering accomplishment, and a befitting landmark for the band, who among all the contemporaries, have always remained the most consistent.

Kasabian are well and truly back with a bang.

The band's new album Velociraptor! is out in September and if you pre-order it from their official store, you receive a download of Switchblade Smiles immediately.