Cold War Kids | “Mine Is Yours” | Album Review

Story by Mitch McCann 

| Published Feb 1, 2011

As so often happens with indie-rockers on their way up the proverbial ladder, the Cold War Kids are being subject to severe scrutiny. Entitled people with laptops, much like myself, are sent into fits of over-privileged ambition to announce to all who will listen that the band they once loved is trading artistic integrity for the big bucks. Every critic is chomping at the bit to give you a different set of songs that are “nowhere near as good as the old stuff,” only to turn around and tell you their favorites.

Such is the case of Mine Is Yours, brought to you by none other than the Cold War Kids - a band that only five short years ago set indie rock aflame with their grimy guitar and shaky, soulful vocals. Today, you can’t throw a $6 hot dog at a summer festival without nailing a band that haven’t covered a CWK tune or two. And while comparisons to contemporaries like Kings of Leon may not be completely unwarranted, they are essentially frivolous in their attempt to write off a band who have been genuinely progressing towards something grand.

Mine Is Yours is fraught with the echoey guitar, lead singer Nathan Willett’s bluesy swagger, and driving multi-layered rock that have become synonymous with the Cold War Kids. All clear in airy anthems like “Royal Blue” recalling 2006’s Robbers & Cowards burner “Passing The Hat”, aching plea “Bulldozer”, or the sultry “Sensitive Kid” which together prove that the Cold War Kids moniker still means something.

Well-versed Cold War Kids fans will recognize the grittier parts of the album as direct evolutions of Robbers & Cowards, or perhaps be able to trace their genesis to 2010’s Behave Yourself EP - largely skipping the ghostly atmosphere of middle child Loyalty to Loyalty. Retaining only the bare aesthetic and produced feel, and scraping the rest for parts - allowing some breathing room and refining their sound to a science.

Standalone, the album is indeed something to be proud of. When compared to elder CWK, its stadium-rock sheen peeks through and criticisms are readily seen - but that doesn’t stop Mine Is Yours from being as personal and smoldering of a modern rock oasis as headphone junkies could ask for.