ALBUM REVIEW: Kid Kapichi – ‘There Goes The Neighbourhood’

You hear that? It’s the sound of doors being blown wide open.

Such is the way of Kid Kapichi, now firmly embedded in the upper crust of UK rock’s go-your-own-wayers, for whom years of exceptional graft has been paying off handsomely. The tentpole of that has been 2022’s Here’s What You Could Have Won, the missive of working class fellas engaging with the myriad frustrations of modern Britain in a decidedly rough-and-tumble way. Since release, the album has only appreciated in value, as has the profile of its creators. What’s noteworthy there is how it slots Kid Kapichi among the stock of the rock scene they find themselves in. If your Nova Twins or Cassyettes are all about countercultural individuality and empowerment within it, Kid Kapichi are the sound of a pissed-off generation clad in a Lacoste polo shirt.

But that’s also where their unassuming magic lies, in a strange sort of way. As it stands now, Kid Kapichi feel like populism incarnate, occupying the liminality between punk, post-punk, alt-rock and indie that gestates potentially boundless reach. In other words, it’s why they’re as primed to go supernova on There Goes The Neighbourhood as they are. Taking the shape of average people with a clutch of truly undeniable songs under their belt, it’s more or less foolproof. In a way, it all carries the spirit of the indie lads from the 2000s reincarnated into the modern day—a group of profoundly normal, everyday, British white guys, now mobilised and clued in on how blatant the societal turmoil around them is.

And yet, try as it might, it’s not quite on par with its predecessor, even though this absolutely feels like the album with longer mainstream legs. Perhaps that’s why it’s not hitting exactly the same, in what appear as concentrated efforts to be more lightweight, or at least not clobber as heavily as what came before. Can EU Hear Me? is a good example, where despite a distressingly catchy hook and jumpy indie instrumental, it’s hard to really sear with a jokey, roughhousing delivery and commentary in Brexit that’s too late after the fact. Kid Kapich’s mischievous glint is well-flaunted, but the odd moment on There Goes The Neighbourhood that runs the risk of flanderisation when their love of a puckish little phrase or reference feels more flippant.

It does need to be stressed that that’s entirely on a case-by-case basis. The album isn’t wholly political, after all; levity is permitted, should it be suitably pulled off. For a song like Tamagotchi that’s literally just a list of nostalgia fodder for ‘90s kids (including the objectively incorrect take that Squirtle is better than Charmander), the groaning, sizzling bass that slides its way through piles on the power and sneer to easily fill in the gaps. Conversely, Subaru might intentionally be a joke song—a slinky, pseudo-indie strut where frontman Jack Wilson reflects on how his partner’s brother and dad violently hate him—but quips like “Call me Kevin McCloud ‘cause she’s a grand design” teeter on being so overly corny. It’s definitely better when there’s a notable heft somewhere to fall back on, which Kid Kapichi’s pulling-in-all-of-their-directions-at-once approach sometimes doesn’t allow for. (It’s also why Angeline is the most blatant misstep, with the trundling instrumental and Wilson stuck in his weedy upper register to bemoan a capricious woman that practically walls off the potential to hit hard.)

Zombie Nation, however, is where the penchant for a jibing playfulness comes to roost in the absolute best way, and appears very in-character for Kid Kapichi specifically. It’s a celebration of 2 tone and ska, already an inspired choice given that they might as well be the modern conversion of that in attitude. Of course, a guest appearance from Madness legend Suggs helps too, but you can really tell that Kid Kapichi understand the relevance of the genre, in how forward-thinking the first wave was in its broad criticisms of government that map cleanly onto the masses incapable of thinking critically about the hateful propaganda they’re force-fed. Apparently the instrumental was written on the day that Terry Hall of The Specials passed away—the title itself is only a semantic tweak or two away from being Ghost Town, if you think about it—and for the type of far-reaching politics that Kid Kapichi traffic in, it’s a borderline flawless move for them.

If There Goes The Neighbourhood does one thing spectacularly well across it’s entire runtime, it’s establish how high the floor can be. Yeah, there might be quibbles around certain aspects, but there’s a laser-crafted intent to remedy almost anything with the power of an almighty hook. It makes for a very addictive listen, amped up whenever that scuzzy, electrified guitar tone is paired with a stop-start jolt of a riff, like on Let’s Get To Work or Get Down. The latter in particular is a good one, with the loping pace and back-alley mood of urban oppression, filtered into an exasperated Wilson’s shitty night out where just a few simple hours of escapism seems too much to ask.

That might also be the ideal encapsulation of what Kid Kapichi strive to be now. It’s a relatable, everyman tale, filled with inescapable malaise that simply being ignorant to gets nowhere. There’s clear vitriol ready to erupt; hell, it does on the album’s very first moment Artillery, a hulking war machine of a song ready to obliterate the ruling classes complict in austerity with a monster riff and drums that’d register on the Richter scale. 999 is similar, a venomous takedown of police corruption that’s the most openly angry that Wilson has perhaps ever sounded, volleying out lines like “So many cases, so many cases / If they’re not rapists, they’re fucking racists”. It’s arguably the extreme of the album, in a corner of uncensored, unleashed fury that’s wormed its way onto a significantly leaner album.

Then again, that speaks to Kid Kapichi’s conviction, and how, regardless of the choices made, none of this represents them bending over uncomfortably. This is exactly the album they would’ve wanted to make, and though personal taste will dictate how some of it lands, it goes without saying that Kid Kapichi belong in the top bracket. There Goes The Neighbourhood skips over lines and boundaries, juggling radio-readiness with nailed-on firebrand spirit, articulating itself with inalienable straightforwardness without its passion being watered down. Crossover albums rarely read as this succinct, but that’s just the killer app of Kid Kapichi on full display. When the wave hits—and it will, trust—there’s at least a handful of songs on here that’ll be inescapable in the right environment. For the best results, go into There Goes The Neighbourhood will all guns blazing; that’s what Kid Kapichi themselves are doing.

For fans of: Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes, Soft Play, SNAYX

‘There Goes The Neighbourhood’ by Kid Kapichi is released on 15th March on Spinefarm Records.

Words by Luke Nuttall