The Kooks Discover What's Most Important In Life On New Album 'Never/Know'

British indie rock favourites The Kooks are back with their seventh album, today releasing Never/Know through Virgin Music Group.

The follow-up to 2022’s 10 Tracks To Echo In The Dark, Never/Know acts as a return to their trademark anthemic songwriting, while celebrating their taste in the classics.

The album, self-produced by frontman and songwriter Luke Pritchard, was born out of a need to reconnect with the band’s early creative spirit. Pritchard shared, “It’s not about going back to the first album’s sound, but to the roots of our influences and asking, ‘What is the identity of this band?’ 

“The whole thing was to just forget that the past had happened,” he said. In order to move forward, though, The Kooks ended up in an introspective space, asking themselves: “What kind of music do we want to make, and how do we make it feel natural?”

Guitarist Hugh Harris added, “At the heart of it, we both want the same thing, and that’s very powerful.”

The album is a fascinating work. Sunny Baby features female backing vocals, the title track contains a Motown influence, Arrow Through Me is a Paul McCartney and Wings cover, and Talk About It revisits the band’s appreciation for soul. Throughout the album, there are two common threads: well-crafted pop-rock songs and allowing them to breathe through simple yet expressive lyrics.

To celebrate the release of Never/Know, The Kooks’ Luke Pritchard has offered an in-depth exploration of the album for The Music, going track by track. Check it out below.

NEVER/KNOW - TRACK BY TRACK BY LUKE PRITCHARD

NEVER KNOW

I wrote Never Know on a writing trip to Stockholm, Sweden a couple years back. I was essentially escaping at the time as I went through a period of writer’s block and thought “I’m just going to try and write for other people, not for me”.

Never Know is my way of trying to go back to storytelling and taking myself out of day-to-day life a little bit. It's a song about living without fear and the idea that you don't know what's around the corner, so live every day like it's your last day. That’s kind of the theme of the album.

I started doing meditation a lot, which led me to question why I worry about certain things and helped me assess what’s really important. I was in love - probably for the first time in my life. I really understood love for the first time, and when you have that connection, nothing else matters. You could die tomorrow. The whole album circles back to that theme for sure. Don’t tell the accountant!

SUNNY BABY

I wrote Sunny Baby with a similar mentality to Never Know. We’re always told how bad everything is at the moment; everything’s shit - the world’s shit, and I thought to myself, I refuse to let the coming years be anything other than the best years of life, because I’ve got a young family. It’s about me getting to a balanced life, having a family. It’s a love song about someone making me fall back in love with myself.

ALL OVER THE WORLD

All Over The World paints a picture of decadence, travel and bling, yet those things aren't always what you think they are. It’s a story about someone who seems to have it all, but they’ve missed the point of life. They’re searching for something that doesn’t exist.

IF THEY COULD ONLY KNOW

My Gran loved my wife, but she only met her when we’d been going out for a few months, and then she died. My dad also died when I was a kid, and I just wish both of them could see me happy. The meaning of this song is as simple as that, really, and I love the line about my Granny’s cooking... because it was bloody awful.

CHINATOWN

It’s a “fuck you” song to an ex.                                                                            

My partner Ellie actually said, “You need to write a song about that whole situation”, then gave me two hours to do it.

There are some cutting lines, but there’s also respect.

I don’t really talk about these kinds of things - partly because I can never remember anything. But when you hear someone’s talking shit about you, and it’s so one sided, writing the song felt like resolution.

COMPASS WILL FRACTURE

It was quite a special moment when we recorded this one. We did it all live, and there was something spooky about it.

Lyrically, it's about the times we live in and how sometimes things can feel backward. Things aren’t always as they seem, and there’s so much confusion circling around. It’s like a compass that’s pointing all over the place and no one knows what’s right or wrong; what’s moral, what’s not moral. I feel like kids can get so caught up in this and think they have to get it right all the time. So, it’s a kind of social commentary on what’s going on in the world.

TOUGH AT THE TOP

Tough At The Top was a release for me. It’s my way of trying to expel some personal frustrations on being the figurehead and leader of the band; the one whose head is on the guillotine, so to speak. At the same time, though, it’s also something I wanted to celebrate because it’s most definitely fun at times. Ultimately, it’s my way of addressing mounting pressure when you’re in charge. You have to expect those pressures when you take on that role, but it can be a lot.

ARROW THROUGH ME

I really love this song. I was listening to it a lot back in 2023, and it was informing the production on the album. It sounds simple, but the time signature is quite weird; it showed me how genius it is to be able to make something so complicated feel like a pop song. The Police do that kind of thing almost as well as The Beatles. It’s high art to me. Aside from that, I just love the song. It gives me a love at first sight feeling.

ECHO CHAMBER

I wrote this track with Josh Lloyd from Jungle. It was the only song I didn’t produce on the album annoyingly, but his production was so good. I did my own version, but I had to admit, his one was better.                                                                                     

Lyrically, it’s kind of a dark love song. It’s about loving the darker qualities in someone yet still loving them as a whole and appreciating them for all that they are, even if still a bit unsure

I was thinking about a time when the band broke up and then got back together. Those moments at the beginning of a long relationship, when you’re not quite sure what the other person is thinking. It’s that fear of unrequited love.

LET YOU GO

Let You Go is a tongue-in-cheek song about a girl I went out with who took advantage of my generosity and left me for someone else. It was time to let her go, but we have to make fun of these things. It didn’t upset me too much, though the money she took was a bit of a pain.

Musically, it was Beatles/Kinks inspired, and I also think it’s kind of Stonesy - their Black and Blue era, when they were in Jamaica. We had Steve Pringle, session musician, come in and play some great keys on it.

TALK ABOUT IT

This was inspired by a friend of mine who’s going through some stuff. It’s about trying to help someone and listening to what they’re dealing with, yet not really being in the same space. One of the hardest things you can go through is when you think you can help someone you care about, but they won’t let you, and they’re sort of self-destructing. It’s a little painful in a way, but positive in a way, too.

I think the message is pretty obvious and I’ve been working hard at opening up. I’ve learnt it can help you a lot and it doesn’t have to be self-indulgent. I’ve also come to realise, most people are worrying about their own problems in life rather than focusing on what everyone else is doing.

Never/Know is out now via Virgin Music Group. You can listen/buy it here.