Cold War Kids has always been a group that presents a quiet intensity of passion in their music.

No matter what way you listen to their music, if it’s through CD, Mp3, vinyl, or even live, they always seem to be able to rock directly into your soul despite all odds.

A perfect example of this is when I attended one of the Cold War Kids concerts in Chicago a few years ago. As headliners, they were pressed right up near the edge of the stage by the other groups’ gear, the lighting kept malfunctioning and Matt Maust’s bass didn’t work for half the set.

Even with all these negatives it still ended up being the best show I have ever seen.

Even though every aspect of the show was messed up, it was still perfect at the same time, from Nathan Willet’s raw emotion as he darted from guitar to piano-singing the whole time–to the breakdown of “Hang Me Out to Dry,” when they simply threw cymbals all over the place for that perfect chaotic sound.

That low-fidelity soul has always been the key to the Cold War Kids’ music, and unfortunately this is gone on “Mine Is Yours.”

Overproduction kills music. It eliminates any of its rawness and replaces it with a product, something to sell, something that sounds cleaner, but less full. This album exemplifies this universal law of music to a T.

Don’t get me wrong, “Mine Is Yours” is still considerably better than its opponents in the soul/punk genre, but it is also considerably disappointing for a Cold War Kids album.

The album still has its moments of course. Willet’s vocals will still cut you to the soul, but those moments are far and few between. When they occur, it seems they occur more cheaply than in the past, considering the lyrics have degraded from the reality of “Hospital Beds” and “We Used to Vacation” to the bland simplicity of “Broken Open” and “Louder Than Ever.”

Fans of Cold War Kids will probably be too busy wondering what went wrong to enjoy any of “Mine Is Yours.”

Although Cold War Kids latest album “Mine Is Yours” is not the band’s best, it’s easy to say earlier albums were some of the best music made in the last decade.

Adam Mohebbi can be reached at 581-7944 or

[email protected].