Overkill, over the hill.
In the wake of Britpop there was a brief flirtation with the merging of rock and electronica and bands like Republica and Sneaker Pimps were heralded as leaders of some new wave in music but it very quickly developed into a damp squib. A few years later and some other false starts along the way, Kosheen were the next band in line to have a crack at teaching the world that guitars and hypnotic beats could create a chart-bothering entity.
In all fairness, they had some decent success, most of it centred around the engaging character and powerful vocals of lead singer Sian Evans who captured all the media attention while the rest of the band took on the role of "Sleeper Blokes" extremely well.
'Overkill' is the comeback single for the bands third record doesnt differ too much from the path already travelled by the band and it just depends if the record buying public have moved on in recent years. The lyrical theme is all about the breakdown and monotony of a failed relationship although the claims that it can easily be apportioned to frustration about how world leaders dilly dally over things seems an absolute lie and cop-out to seem more edgy, which is the feeling you get from Kosheen in all areas. They're pop act who are trying too hard to show they have a murky side and can be as real and hard-hitting as current genre-bledning acts like Kasabian. Quite clearly, Kosheen are not in this league and its hard to pigeonhole the band in with anyone else at the moment, which can be a good or bad thing depending on your viewpoint.
The remixes available are pretty non-descript and would struggle to entice even long-term fans to get excited and are deserving of being flicked over quickly. So its not really an earth shattering combeack that is going to rock the world, music moved on a bit since the days Kosheen were riding high in the minds of the UK record buying public and even the dinner party hosts who wanted a bit of "edge" compared to their Lighthouse Family CD's may struggle to be convinced that Kosheen are the band to supply the meat to the rest of the cheese in their collection.