How The Kooks Left My Rotation
Or why you should listen to High Eyes
When I was fifteen, I started listening to The Kooks for the only good reason a fifteen-year-old should do anything – to impress my crush. She had mentioned in passing liking their music, so I ran home from school that day and immediately pirated their debut album with hopes that I might actually have something to talk to her about. I was hooked. Hooked on their sporadic vocals, on their killer hooks, and most importantly their innate coolness.
Their debut album Inside In/Inside Out quickly entered my regular rotation for the next couple years… And yet I could never really connect with the music. There was always a distance, as if I could never really be the person in the song.
The Kooks were always just so instantly cool – they oozed charisma and 2000s hot-British-white-boy energy. It felt like every song they wrote was about sexy on/off relationships with beautiful women they met by the seaside. They sounded like they wore leather jackets and had groupies. It was untouchable to me. As the nerdy paki kid who started listening to them to impress my crush, my life was the antithesis to everything they stood for. Listening to them was aspirational for me – I wanted to be them so bad – in the long run I’m not so sure how good that was for my self-worth.
High Eyes is the band I wish I had listened to back then. I honestly don’t imagine they’re going to like the comparison I’m making because to be honest they don’t sound tremendously like The Kooks, especially not in recordings. They certainly share some sonic similarities – both write killer catchy hooks and sing lyrics incomprehensibly, but that’s about it. And yet, something about being at their show live just revived fifteen-year-old me and made him think “why the fuck have I been listening to The Kooks instead of these guys”.
As an adult (sort of) I can now look back and laugh at how untouchable The Kooks felt to me. Having been around a lot of musicians since then, I have met the leather-jacket wearing “I play guitar, I’m damaged, and I sleep with beautiful women” guy and he’s not just misogynistic, he’s also just kind of cringey. If The Kooks sound like they wear leather jackets, then High Eyes sounds like they drive an ’04 Volkswagen Passat with a broken tape deck. That’s not to say they make Loser or Nerd rock (genres we’ve talked about before on here that are very close to my heart). This isn’t like Weezer where they lean into self-deprecation to an almost off-putting level, instead they just come across as personable. People I would actually enjoy grabbing a drink with.
Lead singer Alastair (or Ali as everyone calls him) sort of stumbled on to stage with a middle-aged alcoholic swagger. As far as I can tell he is neither an alcoholic nor middle-aged, but something about the way he interacted with the crowd just seemed to embody that in the most endearing way possible. Like that one professor you had who was cynical and exhausted with life, but a fantastic lecturer and a softy on the inside. At times he almost seemed confused that he was on stage and sorry that you had to listen to him play – but of course listening to the band play was nothing short of an absolute delight, which made this persona only more endearing.
After the show I had a chance to have a drink with Ali and I found that this wasn’t just an act, he really was that humble character. At times it seemed like he was maybe too harsh on himself if I’m honest. I’ve seen a lot of bands play and I’ve talked to a lot of frontmen, never has any band that good been so genuinely thankful to me for attending their show, as if I had done him a favor rather than been a fan who was there because I wanted to hear him play.
As a fan of the band, the show was pretty much all I could ask for… pretty much only because the one thing I missed was honestly more of Ali’s personality. I thought his presence on stage was so likeable and fun and yet he seemed in a rush to just let the music talk for him – which at times can certainly be a virtue but I think I would’ve enjoyed a little more frontman self-centeredness from him. With a killer set, tight playing, and a sonically-unique yet spiritually faithful cover of Supersonic I was hooked start to finish (seriously I would love a live-session recording of that cover).
Bottom line – if you’re looking for high momentum classic British guitar-music I can’t see you going wrong with High Eyes. For some tastefully sardonic and infectiously fun pop-punk check out “Graham Norton” (seemingly a crowd favorite), if you’re in the mood for some uplifting and high-energy indie-rock “Sad Bad Go Away” will certainly scratch the itch, and if you instead want something simple, sweet, and romantic then “Loretta” (my personal favorite) will fit right into your regular catchy indie rotations. Give them a listen (High Eyes on Spotify, @higheyes_music on instagram), and while you’re at it why not help them and me out by sharing this post with some friends.
*I want to make a quick note that I know nothing about The Kooks as people, I was only describing the archetype their music conjured in my head and how my view of said archetype has evolved.