'The Death of Cool' vs 'Love Is Hell'

i remember when mtv played the vidoe for 'four men' and i also remember how surprised we all were to see a blatantly gay love song on mtv. the video was dreadful even. funny thing is that 'strange free world'(the closet album) is my favourite, 'hypnogogic' is surely 'gone world gone's' equal and both are likely two of the best songs about sleep ever. but of the two i would pick 'love is hell' because it sounds more immediate even as patrick's howlings turned more primal but then their pop song sensibilities were more perfectly attuned here. 'her last day in bed' is particularly powerful.

Love Is Hell has the best pop moments eg. "Prize" and "The Third Time We Opened The Capsule" but it seems like the band at that point aren't aware of what it is that makes them so good (A.R. Kane noise + sweet indie pop, basically). Whereas on Strange Free World they're *too* aware and thus every song sounds the same.

The Death of Cool get's the balance right: on the one hand every song sounds utterly delicious, layered and swirly but much more passionate and heartfelt. Plus there's great dynamic range, with the stretch from the shimmering pop of "When In Heaven" and "Smiling" to the awesome bliss-outs of "Gone World Gone", "Mad As Snow" and "Blue Pedal" or whatever it's called. In terms of experimentalism + emotionalism, it's pretty much a model indie album for me.

Damn. I'm glad someone agrees with me on the two worthwhile KOD records...

I'd give "Love Is Hell" the slight edge. Yeah, those hard gated drums are starting to sound a little dated, but there's something really harrowing and lost about "Love Is Hell" that just conveys the mood much better than "The Death of Cool"... though the latter is also quite fluid, radiant, and excellent, and sometimes seems like the better one, depending on my mood.

KOD has many finest moments... "Blue Pedal", "Mad as Snow", "Mainly Mornings", "Prize", "Anvil Dub", "Three To Beam Up" and their cover of "White Horses" are up up up there.

I would say more, but instead I'll encourage you to read my AMG reviews of the appropriate albums. ;-)

Ned, yes, I enjoyed your KOD reviews. They're spot-on. I wrote an "essential album" review of 'The Death of Cool' for Splendid, but it's a bit gushing and quite unwieldy in retrospect, though I enjoy the conclusion. I'm much prouder of my Talk Talk "essential album" piece. Back to the point, KOD were a fine band to the end... that last single (I think it was "Feel My Genie" or something like that) was so jagged and cool, though Fruit kind of extended that new-found glam style. Stephen Hero hasn't excited me as much, but it's good to see Fitzgerald and Swales still following their muses. Anyway, for Ned or everyone else... please feel free to continue the "debate" or just gush about KOD. And anyone who doesn't own a copy of 'The Death of Cool' should rush out and buy it right away, whether it's inprint or not.

i agree that the production on strange free world makes the songs sound similar but each song is like a perfect little world in itself. 'subwayed', 'polaroids', 'aspray', 'gorgeous love', 'wuick and rainbows', etc...all are magnificent. 'Cowboys and Aliens' seems more like a hodgepodge collection, although it does have its moments there didn't seem to be the emotion invested as in the first three records. Annoyingly there is a local band called The Stephen Hero and when i seem them listed playing live i always mistakenly believe Patrick and Julian are coming for a visit as I can still fondly recall the first time i say them live (julian and his 15 effects pedals)and they played 'Shiver', Mad as the Snow' and 'Polaroids' in succession and the whole place had the chills afterwards. I didn't like the Fruit lp at all and haven't heard anything from Stephen Hero.

of course i meant 'railwayed'

Also, 'Strange Free World' has 'Quick As Rainbows', which is their second best pop song. Mind you, the version on the original single is better - you're right about the production.

And there's hope that I've taken / And there's drugs to make it painless.

Sigh. Model indie band, yeah.

Mind you, the version on the original single is better

Martin Hannett!

Oh, was it? I see.

Has to be "Death Of Cool".... by a mile...

I am a sucker for sad songs, and "Mad As Snow" is a classic, matched only by "One Of Those Sometimes Is Now" and "1001st Fault".....

Theres a bunch of unreleased tracks floating around and one of those, "Love's Too Strong" is one of the best Kitchens tunes of all time....

God i miss them...............

Theres a bunch of unreleased tracks floating around

TELL ME MORE. mp3 sites, where to search, anything. MUST KNOW! Please. Thanks!

Ashamed to admit I never heard nor picked up LOVE IS HELL, but started with STRANGE FREE WORLD and went from there. On that album, I'm smitten by "Raiwayed" and, of course, "Drive That Fast." "Smiling" on DEATH OF COOL could be one of the greatest bits of utter bliss ever recorded (when Julian Swayles' guitar chimes in around the choruses, it's like a blinding euphoric Christmas moment). For my money, there are some moment of shimmering, emotive brilliance on COWBOYS & ALIENS too (notably the title track, "Now It's Time to Say Goodbye," and "Remember Me")! They were fucking brilliant live, as well.

The Kitchens were certainly great live. I saw them at the Manchester Roadhouse in 1994 and it was awesome. What was great is that although there were just the three of them, they made a pretty full sound live, which you might have thought was diffiult to create with all those sound effects on the guitars. When they played Mad As Snow the room was absolutely awash with these sounds (as you know the song builds up to a bit of a climax), and they had some lighting effects cracking off during that as well. One of the best moments of any gig i have been to.