At the start of a new year, I’ve decided to keep moving along in Miles Kane’s solo catalog with his sophomore effort, Don’t Forget Who You Are. Several years lapsed between this record and the first, but ultimately the style stayed largely the same. A good deal of rock and pop, singing a lot about relationships.
I’d say plenty of songs stood out on this record and will likely make it into rotation. “Bombshells” and “Give Up” were two that really jumped out at me the first time through. Both tunes leaned more into a harder rock category with some intense riffs that really made them unique. “Tonight” was another song that was pretty heavy, and featured an amazing bass line that was prominent throughout the entire song. Slightly more pop was the opening track, “Taking Over,” but I enjoyed that it kind of switched between tempos and style. The opening bit reminded me a lot of The Pink Spiders, so that’s a win in my book.
I will say that there were a good handful of songs off of this album that just reminded me of Christmastime. For instance, the title track features “la, la, la’s” and sleigh bells (!) towards the end of the chorus. That kind of ruined it for me, as it made it sound extremely corny, and the same as some of his past songs did, reminded me of The Beatles. The closing track, “Darkness in Our Hearts,” also had a more rock related Christmas vibe. Kind of a weird sound to achieve for something that’s not a holiday record. “What Condition Am I In?,” while not Christmas sounding, was another track that just wasn’t my cup of tea. It was just sort of middle of the road and maybe too pop oriented.
A couple of good, and more obvious love songs on the record included “Better Than That,” and although it was more pop-oriented, as well, it incorporated rock elements appropriately, really making it a feel-good song. In “Out of Control” and “Fire in My Heart,” Kane really switched up the tone of the record, going for more subdued acoustics. “Out of Control” did eventually feed in more heavy elements, but “Fire in My Heart” managed to commit to a quieter presence by also including piano and some lighter, jazz-like drums. The backing vocals in that song were also unique to the record and added a cool layer to it.
Overall, this was a fairly decent pop-rock record. It’s cool to hear all the risks Kane is willing to take, mainly because he just likes it! The record was fairly cohesive, at least by lyrical content standards, but he was able to make it interesting by switching up the styles from time to time. Again, the Christmas feel wasn’t really my jam, but it didn’t show up enough to ruin the experience for me. From what I’ve hear, Kane’s last solo record, released in 2018, is far different from his first two efforts, so I’ll be interested to check that out here shortly. Stay tuned!