Pumped Up Kicks

posted in: Artist Features • Rock

 

One normally doesn’t think of Lowe’s as an arbiter of music, but you gotta hand it to them”they nailed it when they placed The Kicks‘ Good Morning in their Fresh Cut Grass spot. The sailing power ballad is catchy to the extreme, burrowing down into your brain and setting up camp. As great as that track is, it isn’t the only ace up the Nashville band’s sleeve. The Kicks straddle pop and Southern rock spheres, taking big hooks and roughing them up with a little grit. Hawk Eyes is a ballsy little rocker that slips into a garage rock groove, deft as Jet. But unlike the erstwhile Aussie band, The Kicks take their rock all over the place. The soulful This Feeling reads like vintage R&B, while Sore Thumb has an almost ˜80s attitude. Like Lowe’s, these guys never stop improving.