Well, The Kooks were certainly the most played band in my collection this week (Last.fm says 187 plays). This is one of those surprising bands where you don't really realise how much you like them until you take a listen to their albums and realise you know every single song already!
The Kooks have been the darlings of Xfm for some time now (which will certainly account for me knowing all of their songs as Xfm do tend to overplay the bands they support). However, it was only when I heard their latest single "Sway" that I started to pay real attention to their music.
The song was written about their former bass player Max who had to leave the band because of his problems with drugs. If you have ever had any encounters with addicts or addiction then you'll know that the message of the song is spot on: take your time, look after yourself, do what you need to do - I will be here when you get better.
I can't really recommend one album over the other but if I had to choose, I would say that their second album Konk is slightly better. My favourite song on their first album is "I Want You" and I've just about played it to death over the past couple of weeks, alternating only with "Sway" of course. The Kooks represent the finest that indie rock has to offer at the moment and you can listen to previews of their tracks with Amazon's neat little mp3 widgets:
