With "Lick Your Ticket", CHIKINKI have surely won the award for the worst title of the year. The question is, will their debut album rise above this awfulness and live up to the buzz surrounding them?
I have to admit that these days Chikinki are a disappointment to me. After seeing their live show almost a year ago they seemed to promise so much – none of which is delivered on this album.
Live Chikinki are, (or at least were), full of a vital and exciting energy which set them apart from the new trend in Emo-core emerging at the time. The electro-tinged set left the audience with ringing ears and hearts up-ifted with hope for this new band.
The Chikinki apparent on this debut album could almost be a totally different band to the one I saw last year. Their unpolished vibrancy has been replaced by a collection of tracks that veers with unnerving regularity towards the MOR. This is not to say that "Lick Your Ticket" is a bad album. "Assassinator 13", in particular, has an encouragingly contemporary feel that’s not far from the sound of Bloc Party and "Scissors Paper Stone" also showcases some of the potential I had feared lost. The latter is a happy radio-friendly track that still manages to possess attitude and a sound similar to Jane's Addiction or early Red Hot Chilli Peppers.
|
Unfortunately, though, the exceptional tracks are outnumbered. "To Sacrifice A Child" is irritating to the extreme and both "Forever" and "Bombs" rival Keane for their snooze-inducing banality!
I’m not ready to totally write Chikinki off on the weight of this debut album. If you stay awake long enough to find them there are some worthwhile moments, with wistful vocals and the hint of their old electronic / retro roots. I think the main problem with this album is that I just expected so much more. Last year Chikinki oozed all the cool potential of the Brit-Rock scene, yet they seem to have morphed into a soft-rock band before our very eyes and this, for me, is a tragedy.
|
