Yours Truly, Angry Mob is the second studio album by English rock band Kaiser Chiefs. It was released on 21 February 2007 in Japan, 23 February 2007 in Belgium and the Netherlands, 26 February 2007 in the rest of the world by B-Unique Records and in March in North America by Universal Motown. Produced by Stephen Street, who produced the band's debut album Employment, Yours Truly, Angry Mob is lyrically darker and more socially aware than its predecessor, with tracks dealing with street crime, violence, fame, and the inaccuracy of tabloid articles. The song "Boxing Champ" features drummer Nick Hodgson on lead vocals.

Album information The band revealed to NME in October 2006 that they had recorded 22 songs and hoped to whittle that number down to 13 or 14 for the final album. Additionally, in July 2006 the band revealed to Gigwise that they hoped to have the album released by Valentine's Day 2007. The album was preceded by the release of lead single "Ruby" on 29 January. It became the band's first, and to date, only, number one single on the UK Singles Chart. The album topped the UK Albums Chart and the band released the singles "Everything Is Average Nowadays" on 21 May 2007 and "The Angry Mob" on 20 August 2007. The final single "Love's Not a Competition (But I'm Winning)" was released as a collector's edition 7" single on 12 November 2007, with The Little Ones' cover of "Everything Is Average Nowadays" as a B-side.

The third track on the album, "Heat Dies Down" was never released as an actual single, but music channels started airing a music video, compiled from of on-tour footage and studio recording, in January 2008. Radio stations such as XFM, also started playing the song and it reached Number 9 on the Apple iTunes Driving Songs Chart on 9 June 2008.

Track listing

In Europe, Asia and America, "Learnt My Lesson Well" and "Boxing Champ" were added together to make one track, at a running time of 5:25. In Japan, "Boxing Champ" and "Everything Is Average Nowadays" were added together to make one track, at a running time of 4:15.

Personnel Kaiser Chiefs Nick Baines – keyboards Nick Hodgson – drums, lead vocals on "Boxing Champ" Simon Rix – bass Andrew White – guitar Ricky Wilson – lead vocals (except "Boxing Champ")

Production Stephen Street – production, mixing Tom Stanley – engineering Cenzo Townsend – engineering, mixing Alex Mackenzie – assistant engineer John Davis – mastering

Critical reception Critical response to Yours Truly, Angry Mob was generally positive. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has received an average score of 61, based on 29 reviews.

Spin (p. 92) - 3.5 stars out of 5 -- "[The album] marches through its baker's dozen of punk-tinged pop songs with a prickly sense of purpose." Q magazine (p. 106) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "[T]he eccentric twists bolster Yours Truly's main thrust....The chorus among choruses belongs to the decidedly unaverage 'Everything Is Average Nowadays'..." Uncut (p. 80) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "[T]heir second album manages to be full of surprises, while never straying too far from what you'd expect." CMJ (p. 39) - "The band, in love as ever with the Britpop tradition that spawned them, offers another collection of swaggering uptempo guitar tracks that are full of big, singalong choruses..." Q magazine (p. 84) - Ranked #13 in Q's "The 50 Best Albums of 2007" -- "'The Angry Mob' was the definitive illustration of their maturing lyrical wit and musical brawn." Mojo (p. 98) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "Opener 'Ruby' is a foot-to-the-floor, festival monster-in-waiting, while 'Highroyds' recalls Blur's effervescent, buzzsaw pop."

Charts and certifications

Weekly charts Chart (2007) Peakposition Canadian Albums (Billboard) 26

Year-end charts Chart (2007) Position Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders) 30 Dutch Albums (Album Top 100) 40 German Albums (Offizielle Top 100) 90 Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade) 90 UK Albums (OCC) 7

Chart (2008) Position UK Albums (OCC) 96

Certifications

Release details Country Date Label Format Catalogue Japan 21 February 2007Universal InternationalCD, digital download UICU-1131 / 4988005458735 Europe 23 February 2007 4988005458727 United Kingdom and Ireland 26 February 2007 B-Unique CD, digital download, vinyl LP BUN122LP / 6 02517 24291 3 BUN122CD / 6 02517 23425 3 BUN122CDS / 6 02517 23431 4 United States and Canada 27 March 2007 B-Unique, Universal Motown CD, digital download, CD+DVD B0008588-02 / 6 02517 24960 8 B0008673-02 / 6 02517 26368 0 B0008543-00 / 6 02517 23431 4

References