Cold War Kids

Cold War Kids with Opening Act Husbands

If Nathan Willett followed his usual impulses, Cold War Kids’ 10th album might just have been a five-song EP, or an album with entirely different songs than the 12 ultimately chosen here. Instead, Willett took a rare pandemic-era breather to really contemplate what a Cold War Kids album could, and should, sound like in 2023, and how to infuse the material with meaningful discourse about his life specifically and the state of the world more broadly. Clearly, it was worth the wait: the aptly self-titled result is perhaps the strongest and most well-rounded full-length in the long-running California band’s ample catalog, and the purest possible distillation of Cold War Kids’ nearly 20-year career.

Over the course of nine studio albums and numerous EPs, Cold War Kids have become a major part of the modern musical landscape thanks to deeply personal songcraft and a commitment to forward motion. “First,” their platinum-selling 2015 single, named as the most played track at alternative radio outlets nationwide in the last decade, and 2007’s “Hang Me Up To Dry” remaining a festival staple. Their current lineup – Willett (vocals, piano, guitar), Matt Maust (bass guitar), David Quon (guitar, backing vocals), Matthew Schwartz (keyboards, backing vocals, guitar, percussion), and Joe Plummer (drums, percussion) – coalesced in 2016 and has released a whopping four albums and five EPs since then.

Ultimately, Cold War Kids is the culmination of Willett and Maust’s two-decade creative partnership, and it embodies the realization that said partnership is still truly worth celebrating. “For so many years, we were white-knuckling it and feeling like we were imposters,” Willett admits. “I realized, I can’t think that way. If I’m not sure I can listen back to something and know that it’s great, then I shouldn’t be putting it out.”