West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum (2009)

West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum is the third studio album by British indie rock band Kasabian, which was released on 5 June 2009. It was the band's first album not to feature Christopher Karloff, the band's lead guitarist and songwriter who departed during the writing stages of Empire (2006). Rhythm guitarist Sergio Pizzorno became lead songwriter and co-producer for the band. It is also their first album to feature guitar contributions from Tim Carter, who would become the band's touring guitarist in 2013 and a full-fledged member of the band in 2021.

West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum debuted at number one in the United Kingdom, giving Kasabian their second number-one album in that country, and spawned four singles: "Fire", "Where Did All the Love Go?", "Underdog" and "Vlad the Impaler". It also charted within the top 40 in countries like Australia, France, Ireland and New Zealand.

The album was nominated for the 2009 Mercury Prize. In October 2009, it was voted the best album of the year by Q Magazine.

Composition and music

The West Riding Pauper Lunatic Asylum was a mental institution built in West Yorkshire, England in 1818. Sergio Pizzorno further explained the choice of album title: "The album isn't about the place, I just first heard about it on a TV documentary, and the words just struck me. I love the way it looked and the feeling it evokes. Apparently, it was one of the first for the poor, before that it was mainly rich people who got treatment." The album cover depicts the band "getting dressed up for a party at the asylum, looking in the mirror at the costumes". Inspiration for the cover originated from the artwork of Amon Düül II's album Made in Germany. In an interview with T4, the band said that each track is meant to represent an inmate within the asylum.

Tracks

The opening track "Underdog" was suggested by lead vocalist Tom Meighan to be the opening track, and consists of a jagged riff and synth breakdowns. The song has also seen wide usage in popular culture, including a commercial for BRAVIA's television products and car racing video games Need for Speed: Shift and Asphalt 8: Airborne. "Where Did All The Love Go?" has been described as a psychedelic rock song with a prominent string section, and it segues into the instrumental track "Swarfiga", which was described as krautrock and named after the industrial hand cleaning product Swarfega. "Fast Fuse" has been branded as boasting an 'electronic garage' sound drawing comparisons to Primal Scream, The Rolling Stones and T. Rex. "Take Aim" is the first song on the album with Pizzorno in lead vocals, and demonstrates his diverse guitar work, along with a Mexican funeral march-inspired opening. "Thick as Thieves" has been characterised as an "acoustic stomp" and has been compared to "People Are Strange" by The Doors; the band would often incorporate a snippet of this track in live performances of the song.

Opening with a spoken word sample from the 1983 film Sans Soleil, "West Ryder Silver Bullet" is a duet featuring actress Rosario Dawson, detailing "two lovers racing towards the sunset- a total crazed acid vibe." "Vlad The Impaler" features "big, billowing bass and brusque organ" and features a reference to actor Heath Ledger, who died shortly after the song was written. "Ladies And Gentlemen, Roll The Dice" has been categorised as a "psychedelia-tinged ballad" with a "slow motion Western haunt". The Middle Eastern-inspired "Secret Alphabets" incorporates "fills of oud-like guitar over a camel-gait groove" and samples Helmut Zacharias' interpretation of "Sakura Sakura", therefore crediting him as an additional writer. Lead single and penultimate track "Fire" combines two different, largely distinct grooves, consisting of an acoustic, "anxious, minimalist shuffle" in the verse and a "massive techno" and "dance-rock" chorus as well as Meighan's Elvis-inspired vocals. The closing track "Happiness" is a "gospel-assisted" ballad sung by Pizzorno.

Critical reception

West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum received positive reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 68, based on 15 reviews.