Music
Looking Back
20 years of Employment by Kaiser Chiefs
Ahead of a slew of forthcoming live shows, we celebrate 20 years of the debut album that put Kaiser Chiefs on the map
The year is 2005, and it’s undoubtedly a seminal time for music. The indie kids are strutting around in too-tight jeans, American Apparel skater dresses and feathered haircuts, influenced by the swathe of music sleazing its way into cultural consciousness from a post-911 NYC. Kanye West is about to release his highly anticipated second album Late Registration and, later that year, Madonna will release her career-defining (and Jacques Lu Cont-produced) album Confessions On A Dance Floor.
With Franz Ferdinand’s astonishing debut album bagging the prestigious Mercury Music Prize just the year before, it was obvious English music fans were searching for something more than the godawful nu-metal-by-numbers and manufactured X-Factor pop then dominating the charts. It’s true that as a nation, (and despite welcoming the Meet Me In The Bathroom era with open arms) we tended to gravitate towards bands that sounded like our own, but since the long, painful death of Britpop in the 90s, nothing really seemed to be scratching that musical itch.
Until now. Off the back of Franz Ferdinand’s arthouse sound, a ‘second wave of Britpop’ was about to land, and Leeds rockers Kaiser Chiefs were more than ready to step up to the plate. Originally formed in 1996 as Runston Parva, the band – comprised of vocalist Ricky Wilson, guitarist Andrew White, bassist Simon Rix, keyboardist Nick Baines and drummer Nick Hodgson (who would later be replaced by Vijay Mistry) – renamed themselves in 2003 and were then signed to B-Unique Records after an alleged tip-off from Drowned In Sound founder Sean Adams.
In the summer of 2004, the band started laying down tracks for their debut album. Working with legendary Blur and The Smiths producer Stephen Street (whom drummer Hodgson reportedly approached after he saw them support Ordinary Boys), Kaiser Chiefs recorded Employment quickly and furiously, releasing ‘I Predict A Riot’ in the November of that year. While not the band’s official debut single (‘Oh My God’ was released in the May of 2004 by the Drowned In Sound label, and then re-released two weeks before Employment) ‘I Predict A Riot’ gave the band the leg-up they needed to start making their names heard on the live music scene.
For this writer especially, working on a Rule Britannia-style radio show in Toronto at that time, ‘I Predict A Riot’ sounded like something fresh and exciting. Hungry for more after the emergence of Franz Ferdinand, and just abreast of ‘I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor’ (the single that was to send Arctic Monkeys stratospheric later that year), ‘I Predict A Riot’ captured everything I was missing about England while trudging around in sub-zero slush. It spoke of the quintessential (and yes riotous) smalltown British night out, complete with shit chippers and fighting with lads in tracksuits. On paper, it sounds awful, but for me, living thousands of miles away from home, ‘I Predict A Riot’ was a slice of rose-tinted (and salt n’ vinegar soaked) nostalgia. We absolutely rinsed it on the radio show, and the Brit-obsessed crowd lapped it up, shaking their mod bangs and Beatle boots with gusto.
Back in the UK during the January of 2005, Kaiser Chiefs were opening the NME Awards Tour for Bloc Party (another figurehead for the Britpop revival), The Futureheads and The Killers. Fans were enthused by their live performances. Great things were certainly on the horizon. Then, on 7 March, Employment was released, and this new favour for all things ‘second-wave Britpop’ gave the Kaiser Chiefs a massive commercial and critical hit.
More singles followed including the bouncily ludicrous “hate ballad” (as coined by singer Ricky Wilson) ‘Every Day I Love You Less and Less’, and the Blur-esque ‘Modern Way’. Decorated by the industry and renowned for their bombastic live performances, the Kaiser Chiefs were thrust into the world’s limelight when they were invited to open and perform at the Philadelphia Live 8 concert in 2005. This was a band seemingly on a dizzying trajectory and Employment was the start of it all.
While ‘traditional’ Britpop was all about shitty lifestyles, this new sound was upbeat and adolescent. It was fun to bop along to in the student union, and didn’t appear to take itself too seriously. Plus, the Kaiser Chiefs were so damn likeable. Even now, Ricky Wilson is the type of guy your mum would like you to shack up with. A ‘nice boy’’ with easy humour and nice tailoring. Even if you weren’t a fan of the Kaiser Chiefs, you always sort-of wished them well because they were lads that you could have a pint with while quoting The Inbetweeners.
Employment went on to sell over three million copies and earned the band three Brit Awards, including the award for Best British Group, an NME award for Best Album, and was shortlisted for the Mercury Prize. Of course, other British bands were about to ride this wave of commercial success (Arctic Monkeys, Razorlight, et al), but Kaiser Chiefs were one of the few bands ahead of this massive curve. It really is hard to believe that Employment is now two decades old, but guaranteed its hits will get the crowds jumping like it’s 2005… in 2025. Just recently this writer witnessed a group of Carhartt-clad Leyton dads throwing down to Bloc Party’s seminal ‘Helicopter’ in Crystal Palace Park – yes, the ‘second wave of Britpop’ revival has arrived, and the Kaiser Chiefs are here for it.
Photo by Jo Hale/Getty Images
