You can'y beat a bit of good quality indie rock and West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum by Kasabian is a top quality album packed full of great tracks. It is the third album by the band who are an eclectic bunch of long haired rockers with a decent amount of facial hair.

The opening track sets the scene for what is a great album, Underdog starts with a twanging tinny guitar riff and has the real feel of an anthem with some inspirational lyrics, it is a track built around live performances and as such it is pure quality. One of the other singles to be released from the album Fire is another quality track, it feels like a Doors track to me, with haunting lyrics that build to a crescendo throughout the song with a constant beat under pining the lyrics.

There is a nice lot of variety on this album with some different styles blended in to the tracks, Vlad the Impaler has a great driving guitar lead beat to it and the duet of vocals works so well, this is another song that is great live and allows the band to let rip on stage. Swarfiga is more drum driven with frenetic lyrics that while not my favourite track is still a good high energy song.

Where Did All the Love Go is a slower track and one that has some excellent lyrics and one of my favourite sing along tracks on the album. I love the vocals on this song and it is one of teh strongest on the album.

Track List

1. "Underdog" 4:37
2. "Where Did All the Love Go?" 4:17
3. "Swarfiga" 2:18
4. "Fast Fuse" 4:10
5. "Take Aim" 5:23
6. "Thick as Thieves" 3:06
7. "West Ryder Silver Bullet" 5:15
8. "Vlad the Impaler" 4:44
9. "Ladies and Gentlemen, Roll the Dice" 3:33
10. "Secret Alphabets" (Pizzorno, Helmut Zacharias) 5:07
11. "Fire" 4:13
12. "Happiness" 5:16

I live the variety that can be found on this album and I find it hard to believe that it is actually almost three years old as I still listen to it on a regular basis, a greart band and a great album and a band that are well worth seeing live.