Kasabian’s longevity recalls that fact about Cleopatra living closer in time to the Moon landings than she did to the building of the Egyptian pyramids. The Leicester band formed way back in 1997, an era in which their Britpop and baggy influences remained a dominant, if soon-to-be-waning, cultural force. Cut to 20 years later, and Britpop now feels as alien as punk or Beatlemania.
The four-piece are now a British institution, their foundations a terrific run of early albums that represented noughties UK indie rock at its brash, festival-friendly best. They occupied a singularly groovy, pseudo-psychedelic middle ground, somewhere in the vast space between the era’s polarities of new rave and landfill indie. Bulletproof bangers like ‘Club Foot’, ‘Stuntman’ and ‘Vlad the Impaler’ are effortlessly anthemic, keenly aware of rock and dance music’s separation by the finest of margins.
Via a combination of cultural shifts and their own doing, the last decade saw Kasabian hit some bumps in the road. Musically, 2014’s ‘48:13’ featured awkward experimentation and 2017’s ‘For Crying Out Loud’ was a surprisingly pedestrian outing. However, 2022’s ‘The Alchemist’s Euphoria’ (their first without frontman Tom Meighan) presented a bold new sci-fi vision, paving the way for a future commanded by now-sole vocalist and long-time songwriter Serge Pizzorno.
‘Happenings’ doubles down on its predecessor’s robo-rock attack, but infuses a host of warmer textures into its familiar energy. While it’s no retro regression, an analog warmth courses through the disco ball majesty of ‘Darkest Lullaby’ and the pared–down, open-hearted ‘Passengers’. Pizzorno’s lyrics are similarly heartfelt, loved-up on the likes of ‘Call’ and ‘Coming Back To Me Good’ and full of inspirational vigour on ‘G.O.A.T’ (“you’re an icon / don’t ever compromise /gotta be strong / love will always find a way”).
The album’s colourful affability is encapsulated by the wonderful single ‘Coming Back To Me Good’. Chock-full of breezy guitars, intoxicating melodies and a tempo fine-tuned for strutting down sun-flecked streets, it’s one of the sweetest songs Kasabian have ever crafted. Also, if this doesn’t feature on the soundtrack to the next EA Sports FC game then the studio have missed a sitter.
‘Happenings’ is not without flaws. The brief, punky ‘How Far Will You Go’ doesn’t play to the band’s strengths, while ‘Bird In A Cage’ throws too many maximalist synth sounds into its brief runtime. Broadly, however, this brevity is broadly emblematic of the album’s strengths. At just 28 minutes in length, Kasabian’s eighth studio effort is concise, precise and generally focused. This allows a vibrant emotional clarity to bleed through its swaggering fabric, adding up to Kasabian’s strongest album in some years.
