Is it really a surprise KIGH are a chart-bothering bona fide Top 40 act? Nope. With the live swagger of a platinum selling artist and a clutch of songs good enough to take on our American cousins at this pop-punk-rock thing and win (yep, whisper it kids, we have a band here in the UK actually better than those Yankee doodle dandee types!), it's hardly Earth-shattering news that 'Smart Casual' broke the top 30 on it's first week of release. If you've heard it you'll know why; KIGH are catchy, cool and not offensively inoffensive - they're a pop band if you scratch away at the surface, but not a pop band you need to dislike. It's actually cool to like these boys...
And that's the thing - you can be 12 years old, a 17-year-old Myspace scenester in love with Aled or a near-30-something like me who just loves good tunes; there's just something instantly likeable about this band that will have you singing along with glee in an instant. And while older fans may be miffed at the glossy production and re-working of 'Easy Tiger' and 'Give Me What I Want' they've now taken a new lease of life and deservedly sit alongside the other MTV tracks that infest homes by the million.
So yes, there's nothing new here. This isn't 'Kid A' or 'The White Album', and yes, this is yet another band that sing about the fairer sex ('Girls', 'Pillow Talk' etc) but they do it far, far better than most. And they seem like nice dudes on top (and I'm only saying that 'cos they read PT, natch). Want a homegrown soundtrack to your summer? Look no further...
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