Album: Kaiser Chiefs, Off With Their Heads (B-Unique/Polydor)

Kaiser Chiefs have settled perhaps too comfortably into their role as inheritors of the Great British Droll Pop tradition that runs from The Kinks, Small Faces, The Who and Beatles, through to Blur and Pulp – judging by the rather complacent Off With Their Heads, their third album in about as many years. Its vignettes of urban life seem too cosy and harmless compared with the spikier observations of the Arctic Monkeys, while the arrangements suggest there's some self-imposed brake on their musical stylings, which never stray far from the jolly, prancing pop-rock of the single "Never Miss a Beat". The furthest out they get here is the XTC-esque new-wave pop of "Half the Truth", its tootling organ and guitar interplay overlaid with Ricky Wilson's monotone tumble of words and Sway's rap. Elsewhere, various modes, from the cycling disco synths of "You Want History" to the sub-Beatles progressions of "Tomato in the Rain", are indulged with little originality. Throughout, Wilson's lyrics fall back on a sketchy behaviourism that denies their subjects' emotional truth, from "Like It Too Much" ("You are descended from animals/You are constructed of chemicals") to the glib nullity of "You Want History" ("You want history? It's a mystery"). It's all wisecracks and smug attitudinising.

Pick of the Album: 'Never Miss a Beat', 'Half the Truth'