"I don't own the sun, I don't own the moon," cries Cold War Kids frontman Nathan Willett. It sounds like false modesty. On their third album, the Cali quartet swing for the fences — it's as if CWK, once a sharp band with retro leanings, have been gorging on Springsteen and Kings of Leon. (KOL producer Jacquire King oversees Mine Is Yours.) Willett has a wind-turbine voice, and on "Bulldozer," his bandmates whip up a mighty pomp-rock racket. But the songs are tedious and overbearing — they feel much longer than their average four-minute length. On the bombastic "Flying Upside Down," Willett sings, "Ambition, man, she looks good on you." Not so much, actually.
Listen to "Louder Than Ever":
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