The Kooks, Upstate Concert Hall
It’s just a fact of life that British critics are tough. Call it Simon Cowell syndrome, though he did not originate and has no monopoly on, that brand of gleeful knifetwisting. New Music Express, one of the U.K.’S better-established musical gatekeepers, was rather unkind in its review last year of The Kooks’ ‘‘Let’s Go Sunshine,’’ saying the album, the band’s fifth, “belongs in the bargain bin” and showed the band was in need of “new tricks.” (To judge for yourself, give a listen to the singles “No Pressure” and “All the Time.”) Not everyone was so dismissive: The album has a 59 rating on Metacritic; Q Magazine said “the ever-present feel-good factor makes this an album as impossible to dislike as seeing the sun break through the clouds.” And even the NME review acknowledged The Kooks’ status as “one of the biggest British indie bands of the last decade,” and noted the ubiquity of their songs on certain Spotify playlists as a measure of their enduring popularity. Better to please your fans than your critics, yes? The Kooks (the name is copped from a David Bowie song title) came out of the fertile music scene in Brighton, signing a record deal in 2005. They hit it big out of the gate, with their debut album, “Inside In/inside Out,” reaching No. 2 on the British album chart. Their next effort, 2008’s “Konk,” did even better, topping the British album chart and landing on Billboard’s U.S. album chart also. There have been personnel changes and stylistic digressions, but the band, as Allmusic has noted, remains an avatar of the jangly, guitar-forward Britpop sound.
■ 8 p.m. Monday. $25/$28. Upstate Concert Hall, 1208 Route 146, Clifton Park. 518-371-0012. upstateconcerthall.com.