Kula Shaker

As good an idea as it may have seemed at the time, Kula Shaker should never have covered Deep Purple's "Hush"—intentionally or otherwise, they showed their hand. Their 1997 recording was nearly indistinguishable from the 1969 version, likely because Kula Shaker modeled their own sonic M.O. after that song's imprint of heavy riffs, big harmonies and endless Hammond organ.

Kula Shaker's comeback album, Strangefolk—their first in nearly seven years—is a conservative one, sticking to a watered-down vision of their standard "Hush"-like riffs. It's strange to say, but given today's pop landscape, Kula Shaker's particular brand of retro now sounds, well, dated. In the place of the druggy, Madchester-ish wobble that elevated their first two records is an overload of classic-rock retreads and hippy-dippy mysticism, with few memorable moments.

Lead single "Second Sight" approaches old glories with an unusual time signature and the kind of stop-start momentum tricks that made their debut single, "Hey Dude," such a sugary thrill, but most of the songs on Strangefolk cast Kula Shaker as unfortunate casualties of the neo-hippy '90s, adrift in a sea of 21st-century indie rock.

—Todd Goldstein
08.24.07