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**Kaiser Chiefs - Yours Truly, Angry Mob ★★★☆☆**

Lightning rarely strikes twice in the same place, and for Leeds quintet Kaiser Chiefs, their sophomore effort "Yours Truly, Angry Mob" serves as a stark reminder of this cruel musical truth. After their explosive 2005 debut "Employment" catapulted them from Yorkshire pub rockers to chart-topping heroes of the mid-2000s indie revolution, the pressure was on to prove they weren't just another flash-in-the-pan Britpop revival act. The result is an album that swings wildly between moments of genuine brilliance and frustrating mediocrity – much like an actual angry mob, really.

"Employment" was the Chiefs at their most vital and focused, a collection of impossibly catchy anthems that captured the restless energy of Tony Blair's Britain with surgical precision. Songs like "I Predict a Riot" and "Oh My God" weren't just indie club bangers; they were cultural phenomena that soundtracked a generation's Saturday nights. That album's success stemmed from its perfect balance of Ricky Wilson's manic frontman charisma, Nick Hodgson's razor-sharp songwriting, and a rhythm section that could make even the most stoic listener bounce along. It was indie rock with genuine crossover appeal – smart enough for the NME crowd, hooky enough for Radio 1.

Coming off that commercial and critical high, "Yours Truly, Angry Mob" finds the band grappling with the classic sophomore album dilemma: how do you follow perfection without simply repeating yourself? Their answer, unfortunately, involves throwing everything at the wall and seeing what sticks. The album opens promisingly with "The Angry Mob," a stomping piece of social commentary that sees Wilson railing against tabloid culture and mob mentality over a suitably riotous backdrop. It's classic Kaiser Chiefs – politically aware without being preachy, and blessed with a chorus that could level buildings.

"Ruby" stands as the album's undeniable masterpiece, a sugar-rush pop confection that somehow manages to be both their most commercial moment and their most genuinely affecting. Built around a hypnotic guitar riff and Wilson's most vulnerable vocal performance, it's a love song disguised as a dance-punk anthem, or perhaps the other way around. The track's success – reaching number one in the UK – proved the band could evolve beyond their riot-starting origins without losing their essential spark.

"Everything Is Average Nowadays" continues this hot streak, offering a sardonic take on modern mediocrity wrapped in the kind of irresistible melody that made their debut so compelling. Wilson's observations about contemporary culture feel genuinely insightful rather than merely cynical, backed by the band's tightest arrangement on the record.

However, these highlights are frustratingly surrounded by filler that suggests a band struggling with their own identity. Tracks like "Heat Dies Down" and "Learnt My Lesson Well" feel like pale imitations of their former selves, lacking the spark that made even the deep cuts on "Employment" feel essential. The album's middle section particularly suffers from a case of diminishing returns, with songs that mistake volume for intensity and repetition for memorability.

The production, handled by Stephen Street of Blur and The Smiths fame, occasionally works against the band's natural energy. Where "Employment" felt raw and immediate, "Yours Truly, Angry Mob" sometimes sounds overly polished, as if the rough edges that made the Chiefs so appealing have been sanded away in pursuit of radio-friendly perfection.

In the years since its release, "Yours Truly, Angry Mob" has come to represent a pivotal moment in the Kaiser Chiefs' trajectory. While it spawned genuine hits and proved their staying power beyond debut album syndrome, it also marked the beginning of a gradual decline in cultural relevance. Subsequent albums have found the band exploring various musical directions – from the experimental "The Future Is Medieval" to the back-to-basics approach of "Stay Together" – but none have recaptured the zeitgeist-defining magic of their first record.

Today, Kaiser Chiefs remain a beloved live act and festival staple, their early hits still capable of transforming any crowd into that titular angry mob. "Yours Truly, Angry Mob" stands as a fascinating document of a band caught between their scrappy origins and mainstream aspirations – not quite the masterpiece its predecessor was, but containing enough flashes of brilliance to remind us why