KASABIAN - Act III

Let's say it right away: "Act III" is the Kasabian album we've been waiting for over a decade, in vain (so far). Not because we're dealing with a masterpiece: we're still miles away from the peaks reached by the Leicester band at the turn of the millennium. And yet, with all its undeniable strengths and flaws, this ninth studio album partly recovers the freshness and energy long since buried under mainstream ambitions that clearly never suited the English project well.
Having processed the traumatic - in every sense - departure of Tom Meighan, Kasabian, on the third attempt of this new era, seem to have found, as the title suggests, a precarious balance to dance on. Sure, they still occasionally stumble into a few perhaps inevitable missteps, but Serge Pizzorno handles electric anthems and dancefloor ambitions with greater skill this time round - which translates into uptempo tracks that at times overflow with energy ("Hippie Sunshine", "Great Pretender", "Hyper//Rising") and danceable numbers that are no longer forced but essentially harmless, if not downright enjoyable ("Silver Apple Eyes"). "Soulmate" even tries to reconnect with the English band's roots, an exercise in madchester-isms that turns the clock back to the golden days of "L.S.F."

Of course, the line between style and sheer overreach remains rather thin around here, and the pendulum inevitably swings too far in both directions. While the curious "Superpowers" mixes 100% Kasabian-style choruses with verses that seem to spring from Eminem's pen, and ultimately works, the urge to overdo it (or to try once more to break into the charts) gives birth to a "Nothing Better Than This" that once again comes across as bland and contrived. Where "The Guru And The Crypto Time Machine" seems to fold in on itself, "Glide" surprises with the instrumental solutions it comes up with. And of course there's the inevitable ballad "Say You (Closer)", which brings down the curtain here.

"Act III", itself divided into three acts separated by instrumental interludes, is an honest portrait of what Kasabian have become: a project caught halfway between revisiting their youthful legacy - which still feels like their most sincere and successful side - and a push toward pop territory that, even with hindsight on its side, clashes with reality. Like Calvino's cloven viscount, Serge Pizzorno keeps showing us the two puzzling faces of the same coin.

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08/09/2026