Long awaited and much anticipated, Kid Kapichi have released their fourth studio album – Fearless Nature. A vulnerable album that piques curiosity and emotion; it’s raw, sophisticated, sleazy, and very hooking. This album is elevated and fearless, I’ve had it playing on repeat for the last week, eagerly putting the vinyl on the very second I get home – there’s something really addictive about this one. We all know and love the earlier albums, but this one is different, it’s special.
Quite fittingly, as it sets the precedent for the duration of the album, the opening track Leader Of The Free World gnaws away at you – grittily addictive with a gnarly, dredging guitar hook and moody reverb vocals. Jack’s voice has always been special, accented and clean and gritty. The band play around with echo and distortion on the vocals quite a lot on this album, an effect that is methodically littered throughout.
We go from thudding riffs and clean guitar licks on the first few tracks, sultrily into the sleazy dredge of Shoe Size, and then cleanly into the melodically hooking and head thudding Stainless Steel, a track that I’ve played on repeat since its single release. The chorus is one of those sing along ones, as exhibited brilliantly with their audience at their Devonshire launch party last Wednesday evening, dirty guitar riffs kicking in with venom on that second verse. “Are you scared of that fearless nature?” Jack arrogantly asks, confronting you as a listener both lyrically and through that jangling crisp guitar riff.
The album has a Skinty Fia esque aura to it, aspects of Romance also layered throughout with a slight hint of Humbug in parts, and there’s a magic to the orchestral synth in Worst Kept Secret. They played this one acoustic at their launch, so hearing it with the addition of synth in the back is quite something, as it elevates the tune into a sophisticated and sonically inspiring piece of music. Jack’s vocals are melodic yet still with that touch of grit to them. It’s sexy. The only thing about it that I’d change is the bass riff at the end – extend that by a whole extra minute and you’re golden.
Dark Days Are Coming is an eerie one, lots of reverb and haunting melodies at the start. On par with the opener this one is my favourite on the album, closely followed by If You’ve Got Legs (the bridge in this reminiscent in some way to Get Down from their 2024 album There Goes The Neighbourhood.) Lyrically Dark Days Are Coming can’t help but have a political feel to it – this post austerity era we’re living in, Labour funding and abetting war across Palestine, independent artists under fire from the press and government (take Bob Vylan and Kneecap as blatant examples), and the UK living under authoritarian rule where the human right to protest is being taken away from us one policy at a time. Instead of shying away from the discourse, the band have always made it a focus. And that is the very integral essence of punk. We know this is something intrinsic to the band’s music – just listen to Party at No.10 and New England feat Bob Vylan (2022) or Can EU Hear Me? (2024), or catch them on stage with a Palestine flag hanging up, or their satirical graphic of Putin & Trump snogging (a nod to My God, Help Me to Survive This Deadly Love). This new music, though, isn’t blatant and obvious – they leave a lot to imagination and interpretation on this album.
Head Right is a bit of a curveball, it moves from eerie synth to a Isaac Holman styled grit on the vocals midway through. A slight reminder to me of early Twenty One Pilots, who fittingly the boys will be supporting this summer for All Points East, in London’s Victoria Park. Kid Kapichi have crafted the experiment of distortion on this album into a masterful impact, acting as a gnarly addition to already rock solid riffs and melodies.
When Kid Kapichi announced the departure of their long standing members George and Ben, I was curious about venturing into their new music. Lineup changes will always have a knock on effect on the soul of a band, but not necessarily the integrity, and Jack and Eddie have navigated this change perfectly. As seen live the other week, the music is new and fresh and exciting, something a bit weird and wacky to explore and indulge yourself in. Yet they’ve managed to maintain the intrinsic elements of the old Kid Kapichi. It feels mature, this is very smart and elevated music. Sophisticated. And very, very listenable. I like that the old aspects of the band haven’t been lost; this album is an intersectional point between two eras, with Ben and George on this album in its entirety, Ben referring to this album as both “a love letter and a time capsule“. You’ve also got Ben on production for this, alongside Mike Horner whose credits include HMLTD, Hot Chip, and The xx. At their album launch show we got to see the new members, Lee Martin on guitar, whose previous band Blue Stragglers supported Kid Kapichi on a string of gigs in 2021, including two b2b (socially distanced – remember that weird time?) sets at Brick Lane’s Werkhaus. Miles Gill is the new drummer, and one thing I cannot wait to see is this new lineup in a hardcore gig setting. In the words of Jack, “There’s a whole new vibrancy, especially at live shows where we’re all bouncing off the walls because it feels like our first ever gig again.”
It’s a vulnerable and personal album, one based on Jack’s own psyche and thoughts rather than observation alone, and that is a deeply relatable and provoking theme for any album to have. Lyrically it’s confrontational, and the album stirs up feeling and evokes a strange sense of emotion throughout. What exactly that emotion is will differ from listener to listener. For me, it was melancholy, hope, and a strange sense of sadness and nostalgia. Jack tells me he was personally listening to a lot of The Smiths when writing this one. And as a band, UNKLE and a lot of Bristol trip hop was on the playlist. It always interests me to know who was being played at the time of an album being written; subtle little influences can be found throughout. Especially with UNKLE if you do a deep dive, as I did over the last few days. Rather than just being riff and bass heavy, there’s a new sophistication to this music. It’s sexy, raw, unnerving at times. And it wraps up just perfectly with Rabbit Hole – lyrically despondent, a melancholic and relatable 4 minutes that sits with you long after the album ends.
Contender for album of the year, surely?
Rating: 8.5/10
Top songs: Leader Of The Free World, If You’ve Got Legs, Patience
Purchase here
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