Produced by Dom Craik from UK chart-toppers Nothing But Thieves, ‘There Goes The Neighbourhood’ is the third studio album from Kid Kapichi – 11 signature tracks about misspent youth and nights out in small towns, songs you can protest or party to in equal measure.
Like movie director Guy Ritchie, a global force who remains true to his Brit roots, the Hastings quartet are determined to hold tight to their homegrown values and beliefs, and to take their songs of working-class pride to the broadest possible audience.
Says frontman Jack Wilson about lead single / video ‘Let’s Get To Work’, “It’s a motivational song about getting a job done yourself,” an important sentiment when support networks are eroding; it’s classic Kapichi, music and message combining to powerful effect, setting the mood for an album where the snarling, razor-sharp lyrics are generally balanced out by a cheeky wink of the eye and the turn of a Crombie-d collar.
On ‘Zombie Nation’, a track featuring the unmistakable tones of Madness legend Suggs, a longstanding Kapichi hero, the band spotlight social and political apathy in the face of dark times, and their collective stance against grey Britain and small-island thinking is one that runs throughout the record, in particular ‘Can EU Hear Me?’, a three-minute, Brexit-bemoaning blast of spirited punk.
Closing track, Jimi, an acoustic ode to a fallen friend, adds a different flavour, but generally Kid Kapichi are more raised fist than velvet glove. They’re not a band – actually, make that gang – you’d feel comfortable meeting in a dark alley, but at least you’d see their white socks coming!
