Album Of The Week: Miles Kane — Coup de Grace
A late surge saw Miles Kane leapfrog Barely Alive and favourite Nicki Minaj to win your Album of the Week crown… but what does Mariella Bevan think?
After a five year wait, Miles Kane’s third studio album has been a long time coming. Although this may seem like a long while, three albums worth of material were written before going into the studio, and Miles has also recorded the second album for The Last Shadow Puppets in the meantime. As Kane knows, leaving songs for a while can give you perspective on the work, but it can also make them stale. “Sometimes when they’ve been sitting there for a minute, the excitement goes.” He says, “So I just sort of started from scratch again”. Due to a period of writers block, it wasn’t until pairing up with long time friend and fellow musician Jamie T that things started flowing again.
It is not hard to see the influence of Jamie here; fuzz-heavy guitar features on several of the songs, and all but two of the tracks were co-written by him. Having collaborated with a host of artists in the past — Alex Turner, Guy Chambers, and Paul Weller to name a few — this joint effort is nothing new for Kane, but one artist who joined the pair for the lead single, ‘Loaded’ might be slightly unexpected: Lana Del Rey. After they bumped into her at Jamie’s gig in LA, she expressed her enthusiasm for what they were doing and ended up putting down the melody for Loaded which “blew [them] away”. The track immediately stands out in comparison to Kane’s previous work and much of the rest of the album.
Many of the songs here have been inspired by punk artists such as The Damned and The Ramones, whom Kane had been listening to frequently at the time of writing and recording the LP. This is most clear on the introductory song, Too Little Too Late, which rapidly launches into a short but punchy and fast-paced number, building at the bridge into a satisfying conclusion. Similarly, Cold Light Of The Day features distorted guitar and screaming vocals that comes across erratic and messy in the way only a good punk rock song can. Silverscreen is a song of split personalities, with the verses spotlighting the emotive vocals, whilst on the guitar-lines of the chorus it is hard to distinguish one note from another. The cry of “Liar liar liar, ha” is almost maniacal and the phrase “You won’t leave it alone” gets increasingly high-pitched and intense towards to the end of the track.
Other tracks aren’t so punk rock inspired. Something To Rely On is also fast-paced, but the guitar tone is reminiscent of late 2000s alternative rock à la The Libertines whilst the title track Coup de Grace, has an 80s feel to the instrumental on the chorus. The third single Cry On My Guitar is a catchy, bluesy tune with a swinging beat and a surprising amount of bass. The title gives a clue to the message behind the song, which includes lines such as “Every time you leave me, yeah, it comes to this” and “You push me too far/I sit and then I cry upon the strings of my guitar”. These lyrics are much more melancholy than the melody would suggest, a juxtaposition that Kane enjoyed whilst making the song. Killing The Joke, the album’s only ballad, is more upfront with lyrics about living a “lonely life”. The track is driven by crashing piano chords on the chorus, like many ballads are, but synth chords on the verses give it a slightly different flair in comparison to other songs of its kind, as well as those on the rest of the album.
Having written most of the songs around the time of a break up, using the album as “punk therapy”, it is no surprise that many of the songs are affected by this, Wrong Side Of Life included. The intro is eerie, and the verses expose Kane’s vocals, accompanied solely by an off-beat guitar, with each chorus building in complexity. With reference to Mark Anthony, whose relationship with Cleopatra was famously unhealthy and tumultuous, it seems this is meant to reflect the state of his previous relationship. Although the song itself is easily forgettable, the personal insight into Kane’s life is interesting, as this is not something he is known for. “Opening up lyrically is when I could see it all come together,” he says, “and that’s when I could see the difference with songs written previous” [sic].
Although most of the songs written about the breakup take a negative tone, the final song ends the album on a different note. Shavambacu was named after his nan misheard the phrase “Je t’aime beaucoup” in a Dean Martin lyric, creating the line “My little darling shavambacu, oh honey I love you”. However, this is playfulness is not reflected in the whole song, with the minor piano chords and hand clicking on the chorus giving it a a sense of mystery which wouldn’t be out of place in a cliché film noir. The odd melody and abrupt ending make the finale a bit disappointing, but the sentiment of the song is heartwarming all the same.
Despite some pitfalls, Miles Kane has managed to return with an album that not only explores multiple different sounds than his previous work, but also delves deeper into his emotional side than ever before. The title comes from Kane’s love of wrestling, specifically the signature move of his favourite wrestler Finn Bálor. The term means “final bow”, and although this album is most likely not the end of his career as a solo artist, it does symbolise the end of this particular chapter in his life.
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