Kokomo

Hux's 2004 release To Be Cool unearths a live rehearsal tape the sprawling British blue-eyed funk-soul band Kokomo recorded in 1974, just as the band was getting its sea legs. This was before they had released an album but while they were still an attraction on the U.K.'s pub rock circuit, where they were unquestionably the loosest and funkiest -- at least according to a strict musical definition of the term -- of the scene. Where other pub rockers actually rock & rolled, Kokomo settled into a mellow, soulful groove and rode it for a long, long time, and To Be Cool proves this better than any of their studio albums. In their liner notes, David Coleman and Nigel Cross also argue that this collection "captures the whole spirit of Kokomo better than previous records," and that does indeed seem to be true: these laid-back, elastic jams sound closer to what all observers at the time claim to have heard in concert in the mid-'70s. In that respect, To Be Cool is a valuable document, both for fans of the band and for pub rock fanatics trying to discern how Kokomo fit into the scene (after all, their studio albums always sounded too slick to be pub rock). But that doesn't necessarily mean that To Be Cool will be appealing to both camps. Kokomo's greatest attribute is also its greatest weakness -- and that would be its fondness for never-ending jams. To fans, this is what made the band special, since they had a loose, funky vibe that wasn't heard too often in the U.K., and they could occasionally turn familiar songs inside out with a clever arrangement, as they do here with Bob Dylan's "New Morning." Certainly, there's plenty of opportunity to hear all ten members of Kokomo stretch out here -- of the ten songs here, only one clocks in under five minutes, two weigh in at well over ten minutes, two others hover around the nine-minute mark, while the rest are around six or seven minutes. To those who dig the sound of this band, this is a dream, since you can hear them lay back and play in a way that no other record in the Kokomo catalog captures. But, to the unconverted and curious, a little of this stuff goes a long way. They don't have the grit or imagination of, say, Little Feat -- they are as smooth and party-ready as the Average White Band, who was musically their closest kin in the U.K. To some audiences, this is not a turn-off, and for fans of Kokomo, this is unquestionably the album that captures their spirit and intent the best. Yet for anybody who isn't already a fan, To Be Cool is basically a dull period piece documenting how slick and formless bands specializing in soulful jams could be in the mid-'70s. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide