Kicking Up the Dust [LP] Cast Artist

{|Troubled Times|}, {|Cast|}'s 2011 comeback, was a bit too indebted to the Brit-pop group's past. It was produced by {|John Leckie|}, who helmed their 1995 debut {|All Change|}, and it often seemed like a tribute to the glory days of Cool Britannia,... Read more

{|Troubled Times|}, {|Cast|}'s 2011 comeback, was a bit too indebted to the Brit-pop group's past. It was produced by {|John Leckie|}, who helmed their 1995 debut {|All Change|}, and it often seemed like a tribute to the glory days of Cool Britannia, a sound the band wisely doesn't replicate on its 2017 sequel {|Kicking Up the Dust|}. Originally crowd-funded but given a mass release, {|Kicking Up the Dust|} finds {|Cast|} embracing different rhythms and textures, sometimes hinting at a bit of tense funk and sometimes settling into a mellow simmer. {|Cast|} leader {|John Power|} doesn't abandon his core pop classicism -- at their heart, these songs are British pop in the tradition of {|the Beatles|} -- but the richer production gives {|Kicking Up the Dust|} considerable (and welcome) color, turning it into a stronger album than not only its predecessor, but such '90s efforts as {|Mother Nature Calls|} and {|Magic Hour|}, as well. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine Less