With the release of their highly-anticipated sixth album merely weeks away, UK indie-pop favourites The Kooks have today shared their latest single, ‘Cold Heart’.
Lifted from their forthcoming album, 10 Tracks To Echo In The Dark, ‘Cold Heart’ is a fresh-sounding, electronic-tinged evolution of the band’s iconic indie-pop sound, maintaining the signature Kooks hooks and casual delicious pop.
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Reminiscent of the more percussive, upbeat and dance vibe the group began to roll out on their fourth record Listen, ‘Cold Heart’ is a dancefloor-ready anthem that sees their core, organic sound strumming along behind the bright, fresh new feel to the iconic sound established on their debut studio album Inside In/Inside Out.
Of the track, frontman Luke Pritchard said, “Very excited to drop ‘cold heart’ out into the world this week. The song is about reaching forgiveness and humour when you finally have some perspective. At the end of the track we bring in the incredibly talented kids choir to represent the inner child talking to our future selves.
“Musically it was fun to incorporate some new progressive sounds to the mix but with the DNA of the band we’ve always had. We wanna make people dance with this one. We’ve all been there with someone who is compelling but unreachable, hope you all dig the track!”
The band have taken a fresh approach to releasing their sixth album; being released in three parts, the first two parts consisting of 3-track EP releases and the final part adding a further four tracks to the full album release. While ‘Cold Heart’ arrives today, a further three new songs will round out the album’s full release when it’s released on July 22nd via Lonely Cat / AWAL Recordings.
The album 10 Tracks To Echo In The Dark will be The Kooks’ first new album since 2018’s Let’s Go Sunshine, and is the first album The Kooks have made since Pritchard got married to singer-songwriter Ellie Rose and the couple became parents to son Julian, resulting in a resoundingly optimistic collection of songs.
“I really hope that sense of inner peace comes across,” says Pritchard.
“I really want to have fun with my life at this point. But also – it’s kinda a reflection of what I was feeling in real-time in a pre-and-post COVID world. I was reading a lot of sci-fi – like Philip K. Dick, Azimov and surreal stuff like Boris Vian – which is obviously really distracting from what’s going on in the world, but helped me be imaginative with the songs.
“In the pandemic I had a good amount of time to look over our albums and feel proper proud and lucky. This album is a real thank you to our fans for sticking by us for so long, we hope you love it.”
10 Tracks To Echo In The Dark is set for release on 22nd July.
