When Cold War Kids frontman Nathan Willett was on tour with his band last summer, Kanye West was in the midst of dropping a number of different album projects; a solo record here, a collaboration there. Willett remembers waking up to new batches of songs like a kid wakes up to presents under the tree. It was a strategy the band has employed on their latest crop of albums. New Age Norms 1, produced by Lars Stalfors (St. Vincent, HEALTH, Foster the People), is the first in a trio of Cold War Kids albums to come, and the first album since the band dropped “Complainer” and “4th of July” earlier this summer. (Both tracks can be found on NORMS.)
Heavily anchored in bass and piano melodies, the eight-song album is much different from (and better than) 2017’s L.A. Divine, but still lacks the energy of the band’s output that could be felt when founding member and guitarist Jonnie Russell was still with the group.
Read the full article and check out tour dates here, then pop over to Spotify and check out the album.
