Is 2014 set to be the year of the Kaiser Chiefs?
Once heralded as one of the biggest bands in the UK, the Kaiser Chiefs are this year making their long awaited comeback. Although the band once enjoyed almost unstoppable chart success, with eight successive singles finding places within the top 40, none of their past seven have landed within the top 100; the last being 2008’s Never Miss a Beat (which struck a chord at #5).
Additionally, the band’s fourth album, The Future is Medieval, was released to an indifferent audience, selling less than the minimum amount needed to achieve a silver certificate from the British Phonographic Industry (BPI). Though of course, there are very many bands that enjoy long lasting careers without even nearing the BPI threshold (60,000 album units for silver), times are deemed hard for a band that could once push a million sales per album, and indeed, two million from their debut.
If you want to be truly sceptical about the band’s success, the follow up album, Yours Truly, Angry Mob, sold 800,000 copies, though compared to I Predict A Riot, this represents a 55 per cent drop in sales, which is only furthered by another 75 per cent drop by the third album, Off With Their Heads, which sold 200,000 copies.
In conversation with The Guardian, an industry insider said, “It’s odd to think of 800,000 sales, or even 200,000, as failure, but Kaiser Chiefs’ sales numbers marked them out as a band in a downward spiral, and that’s very, very hard to get out of. As with everything else in life, people like to support success.”
Boosted however by lead singer Ricky Wilson’s regular slot on The Voice, could we see an emergence of a fallen Leeds giant?
Speaking of his appearance on the show, Wilson has said that despite some criticism, he sees it as great opportunity to help promote the band’s new album, Education, Education, Education & War.
Speaking to The Guardian in a different article, Wilson said:
“I don’t want to peddle that old rubbish about being a new band again but for us it did feel like we were making our first record, because it was the first time we didn’t have the captain steering the ship.”
Both the lead single, Coming Home, and the album are set to be released on March 31. So far, the former has already clocked up 600,000 plays on YouTube – far more than any other official upload since 2011.
Judging from the amount of noise and publicity that the band have managed to generate pre-release, it is certain at least, that 2014 shall be a big year for the Kaisers, but just how big, compared to the dizzying heights of 2005 and 2006, it is quite hard to tell.
If you want to judge for yourself, a sneak preview of the new album is now being streamed on the band’s official Soundcloud account.
