It may come as little surprise that Pizzorno wrote the film score for London Boulevard in the same period as Velociraptor!’s creation, but Kasabian have been experimenting with cinematic/orchestral/exotic textures since their sophomore album, Empire. Whereas West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum’s expansive/conceptual ideas were highly impressive, Velociraptor! is a more condensed record in which the Leicester quartet’s increased fascination with wild stylistic/tempo shifts align with their desire to perform songs to stadium-sized crowds.
From its majestic, operatic rock opening (Let’s Roll Just Like We Used To, Days Are Forgotten), Velociraptor! moves into wistful balladry via Goodbye Kiss and psychedelic gem La Fée Verte before slinking into familiar terrain with its anthemic/electro-rock title track. At the record’s centre-point is Acid Turkish Bath (Shelter From The Storm), which seemingly infuses every musical trail that Kasabian have ever embossed. With its Arabic-influenced string arrangements, flamenco guitar rhythms and choral harmonies, Acid Turkish Bath is a hypnotising, mystical classic and one that manages to sound elegantly epic without the usual ostentatious disposition.
Velociraptor’s second half embraces sturdier synth-rock rhythms that give rise to trippy neo-psychedelia (I Hear Voices), punchy anthemic grooves (Re-wired) and the indomitable Switchblade Smiles, which is right up there with L.S.F. (Lost Souls Forever) as an anthem that’s guaranteed to send the masses into frenzied madness. It’s also Kasabian’s heaviest song to date – all punishing guitars, salacious grooves and impassioned hollers. But the harmony-soaked, baroque-folk ditty, Man Of Simple Pleasures, and the heady atmospheric nuances of sublime closer, Neon Neon, demonstrate that Kasabian are one of the more intriguing exponents of big-scale modern-rock.
Velociraptor! isn’t as experimental as its predecessor, but it’s undoubtedly their most concise, cohesive and accomplished offering, as the record exposes a greater clarity and depth to the English group’s eclecticism. Kasabian have become a largely divergent band in the past five years – they’ve gone from showy electro-rockers with club-thumping hits to showy, ambitious rockers with arena-sized zeal. More importantly, Velociraptor! is Kasabian’s most rewarding album to date.
