Kaiser Chiefs

Things could so easily have stayed the same. After more than 10 years, four albums, platinum record sales, a volley of top ten singles and 3 Brit Awards, it would have been simple for Kaiser Chiefs to sit back and coast a while, to enjoy the warm glow of being one of Britain's most cherished bands. But in late 2012 there came a change: the departure of founder member and drummer Nick Hodgson. Yet an event that might have derailed the band entirely instead it lit a fire that has carried the Kaiser Chiefs forward, through a period of re-evaluation and reinforcement, to create an album that is their most considered, literate, and impassioned record to date. Education, Education, Education & War began out of frustration. The band's remaining members, lead singer and lyricist Ricky Wilson, bassist Simon Rix, guitarist Andrew White and keyboardist Nick Baines, decamped to Real World to see if they could kindle something new. In the days that followed, the sense of neutered creativity gave way to something thrilling and unleashed. By the end of that week, Rix recalls, they had "Nineteen or 20 ideas for songs." And more importantly, Wilson says, "We had the spark that gave us hope.... more...