Track Listing

1. We Used To Vacation
2. Hang Me Up To Dry
3. Tell Me In The Morning
4. Hair Down
5. Passing The Hat
6. St John
7. Robbers
8. Hospital Beds
9. Pregnant
10. Red Wine Success
11. God Make Up Your Mind
12. Rubidoux

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #9829 in Music
• Released on: 2007-02-05
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.co.uk Review
Think of an accessible mix of The Strokes, The White Stripes and Tapes & Tapes, with a bit of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and Neutral Milk Hotel thrown in for good measure, and you'll more or less have the sound of Cali indie rockers Cold War Kids nailed. One of the latest blog-hyped bands to have made their reputation via word of mouth and a series of ebullient live shows, the quartet finally present a debut album, Robbers & Cowards. Melding subtle blues motifs, indie rock and Southern soul with a range of ambitious lyrical themes (religion, death, alcoholism, delivered by vocalist Nathan Willett, who sounds like Jack White, Alex Ounsworth and Julian Casablancas rolled into one), the band do a good job early on with infectious, intelligent tracks like "We Used To Vacation," "Hang Me Up To Dry" and "Tell Me In The Morning." As the album wears on however, Willett's warbles sound increasingly unconvincing and the band seem to run out of ideas. A great live experience they may be, but the disproportionate number of fillers here makes for a disappointing studio profile. --Paul Sullivan

CD Description
Before releasing this 2006 full-length album, California's Cold War Kids toured relentlessly, released some EP's, and whipped the nation's youth into an evangelical rock-&-roll frenzy with their charismatic stagecraft and songsmithery, which updates classic rock conventions with a bit of angular, post-punk experimentation. Judging by the tunes here, the enthusiasm is well-deserved.

Customer Reviews

A Very Promising Debut
`Robbers & Cowards', Cold War Kids' debut album is a heady mix of angular indie rock, stomping piano blues, deep-South drawl and Strokes-style New York attitude. Sounds like a mess, but the sheer enthusiasm here carries it through.

Lyrically, the album deals with alcoholism, street fights and life in hospitals and prisons, giving it a Southern USA feeling. The band plays with great energy and are not afraid to use sudden lurches in tempo and pace which work well.

Particular stand-out tracks are the opening two, especially `Hang Me Out to Dry' with its echoing guitar motif and strident vocals, but the record is strong throughout.

On the downside, Nathan Williett's vocals, whilst full of passion and power, do grate occasionally as they are high-pitched and a little atonal, but don't let this put you off as `Robbers & Cowards' is a very impressive debut..

best thing I've heard in a long time
this album is, in a word, fantastic. there is something of a touch of genius here....it's ever so different from all the current bands out there who are trying to sound new whilst just sounding the same as everyone else. I would perhaps say that this band are the artists that the likes of Kasabian, Razorlight, Editors, etc wished they could be.

Attention!!Gets under your skin and won't come out!!!Hidden GEM!!
I'd heard the single Hang Me Up To Dry (hauntingly beautiful!) and immediately pounced and bought the album the day it came out and I've not been able to stop listening to it!!!It really,really draws me in to listen to it! What with a few disappointing follow-up albums in the last few months with my fave bands(you know who you are-shame!) it's good to hear a debut album where I honestly don't feel like skipping forward track after track to get to the very few 'good ones'!
The startling thing about the album is that each song appears to grab and throw you into a story set in (?rural) america with v basic,evocative thundering drums, pianos, loud bass and the fragile and sometimes unreachable high notes reached by the lead singer, Nathan Willett: you can imagine yourself there!!From the all-too-true view of the patient in Hospital Beds to the recovering alcoholic on the opener We Used To Vacation-this is powerful stuff...
Theres a bit of americana/Jack White/stripped down but powerful- even film noir-about the whole album. Apart from the above mentioned standout (and classic) tracks, highlights must include Saint John with its stop-start brilliance and raw drums:the jangliness of Rubidoux: the ride through a rockabilly start to not so rockabilly end of Hair Down.
I wouldn't be surprised if this was a sleeper hit of the year.....it really deserves to be!