Released: 1996
As Britpop owed so much to The Beatles, it was only a matter of time before a band came along that took on the Indian influences of mid-period Beatles. That band was Kula Shaker.
Lead by Crispian Mills, part of the famous acting family (John Mills, Hayley Mills), Kula Shaker were another band (like Menswe@r) that became something of a joke as Britpop faded away.
Even though Kula Shaker had more overt Indian influences than any other Britpop band, the rest of their music sounds more like Deep Purple, Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin than The Beatles. The non-Indian songs here are full of driving riffs and Jon Lord-style organs and keyboards.
As for the album itself, it can pretty much be broken down into three parts; a third of the songs are good, a third are average and a third are terrible. The four singles ('Tattva', 'Grateful When You're Dead', 'Govinda' and 'Hey Dude') are the best songs, and the rest can be divided as mentioned. As such, it's not completely terrible, but not a must-own album.
As for Kula Shaker's fall from favour, it owes something in part to comments Crispian Mills made about Nazism, praising some elements of Hitler and Nazi uniforms(!). I think also the fact that he was perceived as being posh was also a factor; even though Britpop was seemingly filled with people from (upper-)middle-class backgrounds, Mills did seem to get more criticism and arouse more suspicion than most for this. Interestingly, unlike other Britpop alumni who hid their private school backgrounds or played down how well off their families were, and often tried to pretend they were from tough working class backgrounds when they weren't, Mills never did this yet he seemed to take flak for his background when others didn't.
Rating: 2.5/5
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