The Kooks: 'Always Where I Need To Be'

They may have sold 1.5 million copies of their debut album, Inside In/Inside Out, but The Kooks still don't seem very happy - and it's not hard to work out why. Blame it on their Brit School beginnings, frontman Luke Pritchard's (long-extinguished) relationship with Katie Melua, or, perhaps most pertinently, their desire to be that bit more "rock" than they actually are, but credibility continues to elude the Brighton four-piece.

'Always Where I Need To Be', the lead single from their upcoming Konk album, is unlikely to help matters. With its grindy guitar riffs, "do-do-do-do" chorus and chipper, everything-works-out-in-the-end sentiments, it's just begging to soundtrack a bustling breakfast scene on Hollyoaks. Pritchard, meanwhile, puts in a typically mannered, yelping vocal performance, sounding increasingly like a drunken karaoke version of himself. A decent enough indie-pop single, but, for a band called The Kooks, they continue to sound very ordinary indeed.


> Click here to watch the 'Always Where I Need To Be' video