Kasabian emerged from Leicester, England, in the early 2000s, an uncertain period in British pop music. Britpop had petered out a few years earlier as bands like Blur and Oasis lost the impetus of their commercial peak in the mid-1990s. Radiohead remained as big as ever, but their shift into esoteric art music alienated many mainstream listeners. Against all predictions, Coldplay became the biggest British band on the planet, triggering a wave of melodic pop-rock groups – Keane, the Kooks, Snow Patrol, Travis, etc. – that were “indie” more in concept than fact.
Kasabian sidestepped the ambivalence of the time by creating unabashedly commercial music. Early hits like “Club Foot”, “Reason Is Treason”, “Empire”, and “Fire” had enough rock and roll heat for Kasabian not to get bottled by Oasis fans during opening sets on a US tour. At the same time, Kasabian were intrinsically dance-oriented in ways most of their rock contemporaries were not. Lead vocalist Tom Meighan stomped around the stage like Liam Gallagher on steroids as his bandmates, led by guitarist Sergio Pizzorno, laid down stadium-ready grooves behind him.
The peak came in 2010 when Britain’s Premier League football organization adopted “Fire” as its anthem for three successive seasons. A headlining set at Glastonbury in 2014 placed Kasabian in the top rank of British pop groups, while a clutch of awards from NME, Q, and the Brit Awards garnished Kasabian’s success. Things came crashing to a halt in 2020 – temporarily, as it turned out – when Tom Meighan, charged with abuse against his domestic partner, was fired from the group.
Sergio Pizzorno has done a remarkable job of adopting the frontman role in Kasabian since the group’s 2022 album The Alchemist’s Euphoria. That record’s more pronounced dance instincts continue unabated on Kasabian’s eighth LP, Happenings. Brief at just 28 minutes, Happenings channels infectious energy into ten songs two or three minutes in length. Kasabian’s recent set at Glastonbury 2024 emphasized the return to form, as Pizzorno’s magnetic stage presence sealed the efforts of bassist Chris Edwards, drummer Ian Matthews, and former touring guitarist, now full-time member Tim Carter.
“Darkest Lullaby” begins Happenings as a call-to-order for Kasabian’s danceable pop-rock and singalong choruses. Two follow-up tracks, “Call” and “Coming Back to Me Good”, deepen the group’s hard electronic groove, leaving rock music per se lying in the dust. “Passengers” and “Italian Horror” are closer to Kasabian’s earlier work, using plaintive guitar riffs juxtaposed with huge “Woah-oh-oh” chants to vary the dynamics. This simple box of tricks can be inspiring or become wearing, depending on your tolerance for cliché.
The rest of Happenings mainly varies these motifs, although “Hell of It” evokes hip-hop as Sergio Pizzorno toughens up his vocal delivery, and “Bird in a Cage” slows the tempo to a synth-driven burn. The final track and first single, “Algorithms”, is the only one with a less-than-positive message as the lyrics contemplate “algorithms taking control” and “robots believing they have a soul”. The veiled references to AI and its emerging impact on human society lend “Algorithms” a topical theme absent from the other nine tracks.
Kasabian’s Happenings is not the kind of album you play in search of profound lyrical insights or musical innovations. It’s party rock (and pop) meant to elicit communal spirit and a big old singalong as each infectious chorus hits its stride. As video footage of Kasabian proves, the music comes to life most vividly amid a festival ground or sports arena packed with brimming spectators. While nothing on Happenings has quite the anthemic urge of early hits like “Empire” or “Fire”, the craftsmanship and infectiousness of the material make the album a fun listen amid life’s brighter moments.