First published by Liverpool Live, October 2014.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Every generation occasionally despairs at the one that is following it, the ones for whom the hopes of creating a fairer world depend upon as the preceding group realises that it has somehow failed to change the world enough to make pettiness and want a negative emotion consigned to the dustbin of history. The despair comes in because somehow they believe that if they cannot make a difference then what chance does this next lot have? There are too many distractions, too much entertainment on offer in which to make making a stand against so called higher powers almost impossible.
Therein lays the rub, for whilst there are distractions for many, 21st Century pleasures going hand in hand with at times what can only be named as uninhibited sorrow, there are those who are more than able to pour scorn on people, on organisations, who deserve a bashing via the medium of art and in Kids on Bridges album, Kidology, the next generation has a set of fighters willing, albeit in the popular form, to hand out a lesson.
The electrifying disturbance, the hand upon the barbed wire feeling pain, is supplied over the course of 12 superb songs with no let-up in the underlying scorn which is romantically tied up in the thought of a great beat and songs which hum louder than a bag full of bees drawing up plans of escape in which would make escape from Colditz look like a walk in the park.
Christian Bragg, Daniel Rankin and Andrew Culshaw deliver intelligence, a certain rough beauty but never letting go of the clear cut, sometimes cynical, sound that electronica can supply. Tracks such as Bankers to Feed, the sublime When The Needle Drops, Something In The Water and the wonderfully driven Just Because You Can (Don’t Mean You Should) all make Kidology a moment in which to revel and rebel alongside.
Kids on Bridges have the talent, they have the right attitude in which to soar and they also have the ability to cross over between generations and place a sign over each door saying that the next generation deserves their chance to raise the standard. It may be considered pop, but there is more than enough substance in which to overthrow stupidity and ignorance strewn throughout the album. A band to enjoy and take notice of.
Ian D. Hall