With a tracklist and cover art chosen by our writer, you can buy Guardian music's bespoke version of The Future Is Medieval (best of all, �1 from each sale goes to charity)
Read an interview with Kaiser Chiefs in Film&Music
Buy the Guardian's version of The Future is Medieval
Excited as you may be by the idea, it's entirely conceivable that you may not have the time or even the inclination to pick the 10 songs you want to make up your bespoke Kaiser Chiefs album. Allow Film&Music to come to your aid. We're actually quite good at this sort of thing. We once spent an entire evening in a King's Cross boozer doing this with the White Album. By the time we finished, what was once a sprawling 30-song monolith had become the Fabs' most streamlined masterpiece. No more Savoy Truffle or Revolution 9. As for Don't Pass Me By: Ringo ? I'm afraid it's a no from us.
Over the course of 20 songs, it's pretty clear that Kaiser Chiefs have used The Future Is Medieval to give vent to their own sense of adventure. To open with, however, we plumped for Cousin in the Bronx, with its scene-setting traffic noise giving vent to a punchy paean to the song's bullshitting protagonist.
From here on in we looked to maintain the frenetic energy with a brace of tunes that picked up from the pummelling Bash Street Kaiserpop of 2008's Off With Their Heads. The neurotic interior monologue of Problem Solved hits the spot, as does Out of Focus.
Time for a detour into more tender emotions. With a passing nod to Rise & Fall-era Madness when the exuberance of youth started giving ground to autumnal reflection, When All Is Quiet comes next. Then, taking the metaphorical needle to the end of side one is The Future Is Medieval's most achingly sad moment ? Nick Hodgson's address to his ailing father If You Will Have Me.
Time, as the second half of the album begins, to remember what a formidable noise Kaiser Chiefs can make. Written about Joe Orton and Kenneth Halliwell, Little Shocks is a fittingly fantastic heir to the imperishable likes of I Predict a Riot and Every Day I Love You Less and Less, exploding around the refrain, "I wish I could give you my undivided attention every minute every day that I've got".
With their galloping air of faint menace, I Dare You and Back in December are a great fit here ? the latter boasting incendiary soloing from guitarist Andrew White. Seeking to disprove Robert Forster's controversial contention that the penultimate song on any album is always the worst, we've saved our favourite for this precise point. Propelled by some deranged keyboard work from Nick "Peanut" Baines, Dead Or in Serious Trouble is precisely the sort of song for which Ricky Wilson was made to hurl himself into the audience.
For its atmospheric closing-credits quality, we're choosing to end with the murky metropolitan blues of Child of the Jago, from which The Future Is Medieval takes its title. We've listened back to the whole thing. It sounds like the album we wanted Kaiser Chiefs to make at this point. If you feel inclined to take our word for it, go to kaiserchiefs.com/guardianmusic where you can buy it for �7.50. Our �1 proceeds from each copy sold will be passed on to the Alzheimer's Society.
Guardian music's full tracklisting
1. Cousin in the Bronx
2. Problem Solved
3. Out of Focus
4. When All Is Quiet
5. If You Will Have Me
6. Little Shocks
7. I Dare You
8. Back in December
9. Dead Or in Serious Trouble
10. Child of the Jago
Universal Music will pay 80p + VAT for each celebrity designed copy of The Kaiser Chiefs album sold to Alzheimer's Trading Ltd, company number 2115499, which gives all its taxable profits to the Alzheimer's Society, charity number 296645
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2011/jun/02/kaiser-chiefs-album
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