Cold War Kids w/ A Lull

On Cold War Kids' breakout debut album, 2006's Robbers & Cowards, the Long Beach quartet's signature clanging piano keys, off-kilter guitar and murky bass notes collude with Nathan Willett's soaring, gospel-like vocals for an unusually raw and soulful listen. Recreating that "Hang Me Up to Dry" magic has proved difficult for the group, however. The band's politically minded 2008 follow-up, Loyalty to Loyalty, was overbearingly loud and bluesy, lacking their debut's finesse, and their new record, Mine Is Yours, suffers from the opposite problem. Willett's throaty squall has settled into an easygoing Tracy Chapman emulation, and the band's jarring instrumentation has mellowed into a barely there, radio-tame purr.