Kasabian - "West Ryder Silver Bullet"

To me, Kasabian has always been strangely reliable in their sound. Though they seem to revel in the unpredictable, their albums are typically filled with riff heavy rockers and shroomed out mood pieces, all slathered with electronic flourishes.

So the de facto title track of their newest album is firmly in the territory of the later. It's a languid  Western/Middle Eastern stroll through a haze of outlaw imagery and Rosario Dawson's surprising vocal turns. Fortunately the result is more Scarlett Johansson than Paris Hilton, with Dawson singing the rather mundane chorus lyrics of "s/he's my baby" with a bit more life than Mr. Meighan.

As desiccated and initially intriguing as its sound and is, one can't help but feel a bit bored as the track approaches and surpasses five minutes, especially when a thunderous drumbeat that should have come in about two minutes earlier enters. And the bemusing spoken word intro (some nonsense regarding "electric graffiti" and "profiles on prison walls") adds literally nothing aside from twenty seconds to the running time.

Lyrically, the outlaws-in-love vibe doesn't do well past the first verse. It was already done, with much more aplomb, in "Fire," this song's much more interesting cousin. Though I will say the loping, ropy guitar line becomes wedged into your mind with alarming speed.

This was one of their two-minute interludes that was stretched out a tad too far.