Downtown

Cold War Kids swings for the fences with Mine Is Yours, the band’s most accessible and upbeat album to date. For the first time, the quartet enlists the help of an outside producer, Jacquire King. Best know for his work with Kings of Leon, King beefs up the band’s production and its layered approach, which may help CWC harness a similar mainstream attention. But in doing so, the members of the band sacrifice the emotional tension of their early material – save for “Royal Blue,” which achieves the perfect mix of urgent yet polished. Poppy and loaded with radio ready mid-tempo anthems, it’s hard not to long for the raw power of 2006’s debut Robbers & Cowards. But then again, people always say that kind of thing right before a band blows up.