A majestic farewell...
Kinesis' second full-length album 'You Are Being Lied To' marks both a new beginning and the end of an era. Monday 13th June will see the band releasing the album they have always wanted and always threatened to make... and splitting up on the same day.
So why would they do this? When I discovered that Kinesis were going to split on the same day they released their album and then I read the album's title, 'You Are Being Lied To', I wondered if this was some kind of clever publicity stunt. Why would a band that has been hailed as 'one of the most important bands of their generation' want to throw in the towel after just two albums?
But knowing what we do about Kinesis, it would be wrong to think that this had anything to do with publicity. This is a band that has always been anti-image and anti-media, and after their five-year tussle with the music industry has decided that enough is enough. 'You Are Being Lied To' stands as the band's final farewell and the definitive full stop to their history. The album sees a return to the 'Do-It-Yourself' approach of their mini-album, 'Worship Yourself' (2001), with the band taking full responsibility for the recording and production of this independently produced record. For those of you expecting the same kind of instantly likeable, instantly catchy, straightforward sound of 'Handshakes For Bullets' then you won't necessarily find it here. However, you certainly won't be disappointed; although it is much less commercially viable, 'You Are Being Lied To' proves that Kinesis are still a band capable of producing great melodies. And unlike 'Handshakes For Bullets', 'You Are Being Lied To' takes a lot more active listening, not to find the melody (all the songs are instantly engaging in that respect) but to appreciate the complexity of each track. The title track, 'You Are Being Lied To' and 'Everything You Thought You Knew To Be' illustrate this well with their catchy, driving rhythms, big choruses, impassioned vocals, pounding drums and blistering guitar.
Whilst this album does work together as a cohesive whole, there's a lot of variation in the tracks, from the up tempo, easy to listen to sound of 'Principles Are A Luxury' and 'A Prayer For Death' to the darker sounding, raw, hypnotic melody of 'Rainbow in the Night'. But perhaps the two most interesting tracks have to be those that open and close the album. The opener, 'A Voice To Preserve' begins with a piano intro and fragile vocals before building into an intricate and majestic mini-masterpiece, reminiscent of Muse or The Manic Street Preachers. The epic-like quality of this song makes it feel that it should be closing the record rather than beginning it, however, 'The Question Has Changed' does a perfect job of summing up the album. Delicate, powerful and emotionally wrought, there's both hope and utter desolation in the band's final statement, 'none of this will matter in a thousand years'.
Overall, what's most refreshing about this album is that it's not the kind of resentful attack on the music industry that you might expect, and the overwhelming vibe of the album isn't one of anger and bitterness. Yes there's politics here and yes there's anger, but it's still possible to see through this and appreciate 'You Are Being Lied To' as an intricate album by a band searching for their own truth. They will be missed.