The Alchemist's Euphoria

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The middle tune boasts two of the best moments on the record, as a haunted beat drifts out of the melody like an emergency shuttle detaching from a space station, preceding an abrupt aural shift – into a ‘90s hip-hop-style instrumental – that would make ‘Yeezus’-era Kanye West proud. Pizzorno, though, prepared to take Meighan’s place by studying videos of Iggy Pop whipping up a crowd; think of it as a crash-course in rockstar training. New single ‘Scriptvre’ arrives in the wake of their snappy track ‘Alygatyr’ and heralds a brave new world from Serge’s magic kingdom. Pizzorno wasn’t exactly Thom Yorke, pushing the band into wildly uncommercial directions and trusting the audience to follow, but thanks to his musical curiosity and willingness to stray from lad-rock’s desire lines, Kasabian’s catalogue has always had plenty of moments capable of raising an eyebrow.

Even if your head’s not right, it’ll be alright,” Serge sings softly, “if you just start letting go”, his steely resolve revealing the sense of rebirth at the core of ‘The Alchemist’s Euphoria’. Former frontman Tom Meighan parted ways with the band in July 2020, and the following day pleaded guilty to assaulting his then-fiancée, now-wife Vikki Ager.

The group’s resulting seventh album, ‘The Alchemist’s Euphoria’, is a whipsmart collection that pings from classic Kasabian piss-up chant-alongs (scything lead single ‘ALYGATYR’; the tellingly titled ‘ROCKET FUEL’) to starry eyed ballads – with, perhaps surprisingly, the emphasis on the latter. Would he reprise the agreeably off-the-wall ventures of his solo project, the SLP, on which he appeared unable to decide whether he wanted to be a rapper or a forger of grand prog concepts?

Now, bands can thrive when a replacement singer comes from within the ranks: Pink Floyd and Genesis seemed to do OK for themselves after the loss of Syd Barrett and Peter Gabriel respectively. But for every one of those there’s Doug Yule taking charge of the Velvet Underground and recording Squeeze, or the two albums the Doors made with Ray Manzarek and Robbie Krieger singing after the death of Jim Morrison, albums so non-canonical that I defy any but the most committed Doors obsessive to even name them. Was aber gar nicht geht - auch wenn Kasabian hierauf keinen maßgeblichen Einfluss haben - ist die flächendeckend zunehmend miese Verpackung.

Kasabian have always been about having a good fucking time, and although this is understandably their most introspective record yet, it does point to euphoria ahead. Love Kasabian normally, have all there albums and seen them live, they were excellent but this album is a great disappointment I’m afraid. EURO) schon eine Zumutung (alleine das Herausgefummele von Tonträger oder Booklet, das Einreißen der dünnen Pappe beim Herausnehmen oder Wiederverstauen; die abgestoßenen Ecken und Kanten und so weiter und so fort), kann man dem Ganzen auch noch die Krone aufsetzen, indem das Digisleeve auch noch ein anderes Format als Jewelcase, Digipak oder das normale Digisleeve hat: es ist nämlich noch kleiner.