Kasabian: Happenings review – newfound concision and big choruses

If 2022’s The Alchemist’s Euphoria, Kasabian’s first album after the defenestration of disgraced frontman Tom Meighan, sounded like the work of a band trying too hard to cram in as many ideas – good or bad – as possible, Happenings feels a lot tighter and more coherent. During the writing process, Serge Pizzorno, who took on vocal duties after Meighan’s departure, ruthlessly pared back the songs he was working on, and so almost everything clocks in below the three-minute mark.

This newfound concision doesn’t mark a paradigm shift towards, say, the groundbreaking excellence of Pink Flag-era Wire, but it does bring a refreshing directness to the Leicester four-piece’s trademark stadium indie, with massive choruses never too far away. Darkest Lullaby and Call make for an especially strong start to the album. However, with Meighan gone, Happenings does at times sound like the work of a band struggling with an identity crisis and consequently cosplaying some of their peers. Most notably, Passengers starts like some sort of Red Hot Chili Peppers tribute act; elsewhere there are nods to Foals and early Arctic Monkeys too.