Kevin Bronson on July 16th, 2014

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As if Nathan Willett and Matt Maust weren’t busy enough – their French Style Furs side project with ex-We Barbarians drummer Nathan Warkentin released its debut album July 8 – Cold War Kids have a new album on the way. It’ll be the fifth for the Orange County/Long Beach-bred band, and the first with the lineup of Willett, Maust, Dann Gallucci, Joe Plummer and Matthew Schwartz, original guitarist Jonnie Russell having departed the band in 2012 and drummer Matt Aveiro more recently. The new single “All This Could Be Yours” introduces itself with a piano progression similar to 2006’s “Hospital Beds” and segues into a good ol’ bluesy romp. It’s one of  most obviously catchy three-minute blasts the Kids have made, and while Willett’s wail remains intense and the band’s overall rough edges are intact, “All This Could Be Yours” feels too automatic to rank high in Cold War Kids’ catalog of vivid storytelling and soul-stirring meditation.

||| Stream: “All This Could Be Yours”

||| Live: Cold War Kids play the Sunset Strip Music Festival on Sept. 20 and the Observatory on Nov. 20.

||| Previously: “Pine St.,” “Water & Power,” “Loner Phase,” “Miracle Mile,” live at the Bootleg, “Minimum Day,” “Skip the Charades,” “Mine Is Yours”