The Seduction of Kansas

Both poppy and heady, intelligent and reckless, and sometimes bordering on absurdist, The Seduction of Kansas calls into question the social landscape of the American heartland and poses Priests as punk’s resident anthropologists. First heralded as post-punk heroes, Priests are now much more than that: They’re post-genre saviors bringing vital discourse and sharp observations to the table, still preaching the punk gospel along the way.

Her dark theatrics dominate 68 Screen, evoking '70s punks X-Ray Spex with a call-and-response about women's commodified bodies. [Jun 2019, p.115]

They may not always rock as straightforwardly as fans may have wanted, but what’s clear in The Seduction of Kansas is that Priests are out to please themselves in whatever minute ways they can in their wasteland of a country--and you can either join them for the tour or go back to sticking your head in the sand.

While they're too nonconformist to be a traditional punk band, they continue to define themselves as something more challenging and encompassing.

On The Seduction of Kansas they thrillingly disrobe of any of the negative connotations that might, usually wrongly, come along with that phrase “political punks”; namely extreme directness and a sense of lacking musicality, as the band explores new identities both narratively and stylistically.

It's a more mature record, one that keeps the energy of its predecessor and filters it through new sonic filters. Thanks to its subtle mix of styles there's a timeless quality, the sound of freethinkers finding their feet in a very weird time. Get on it.

As a listening experience, it's a dense one, but never weighty.

The Seduction Of Kansas is an intelligent and essential record the establishes Priests as masters of their craft, and truly marks them out as one of the most capable punk bands around.

The Seduction of Kansas finds Priests progressing beyond their abrasive punk roots into a genre-defying force, fluent in the slick soundscapes of St. Vincent and the Talking Heads as well as the grain and grit of Portishead and Nine Inch Nails.

Too urgent to ignore, too pretentious to easily love, The Seduction of Kansas winds up feeling both high-concept and kind of hollow, whether inherently or in natural reflection of its subject matter.

The Seduction of Kansas is another evocative and considered album, the band reiterating their ability to present topics with tremendous clarity and depth. Which, given the complexity of their themes, is exactly what most of us are crying out for.

The Seduction of Kansas is, all things considered, a solid second album. It builds on the promise of Nothing Feels Natural, and while it occasionally fumbles its own goals, it’s hard to fault Priests for aiming high. One can only hope that the radical ambition and sense of purpose on display here carries them far into the future.

The music fits the expansive mood, at once dreamy and pointed, suggesting a psychedelic mutation of Southern indie-rock gods Pylon’s agrarian art-disco or David Bowie’s Scary Monsters toughened up on a Factory Records budget. As with the greatest anti-fascist ranters, Priests’ critiques hit home hardest when they are singing from inside capitalism’s and sexism’s matrices of exploitation, turning impassioned theory into resonate practice.

Meditative, agitative and seductive throughout. [May 2019, p.32]

While this is still recognisably Priests, the band have taken on the role of '80s post-punk revivalists, building a moody, reverb-soaked, atmospheric version of their former selves, to mostly positive results.

For such an intellectually fearless band, the production is sometimes frustratingly reserved: you can never seem to turn the volume loud enough to give the more biting songs the impact they deserve.