Anyone who wants to know how the British indie rock music scene was doing in 2006 can come to me for some sort of insight. I’ve done it before a few times on here. I was a young’un then, as I’ve also said frequently in the past, but I was aware of what was going on. Generally, it was a good time to be in a band. That was the year that ultimately Arctic Monkeys grabbed by the balls and ran away with. But under their shadow were other groups that weren’t doing too badly themselves. The Kooks released their debut album the same day Arctic Monkeys released theirs. Each single they released up to that point and after came in higher and higher in the UK charts. The first, ‘Eddie’s Gun’, was released in July 2005. I had just finished year 5 of primary school. The final single and today’s track, ‘Ooh La’, was released in October 2006. I had been at secondary school for a month and a bit. So clearly the want for more singles from Inside In/Inside Out was at a high.

I witnessed it all. I wasn’t into The Kooks as much as Arctic Monkeys, but MTV2 was always showing their music videos whenever a new single arose. ‘Ooh La’, I got to know because of this. Almost everyone morning getting ready for school in those darker mornings you get with daylight savings time, the video for ‘Ooh La’ was on. Although I thought they were trying to be artsy by having a black-and-white video filmed in Paris, there was certainly a vibe to ‘Ooh La’ that made it stand out from the singles that came before. The track’s all minor-key like, but really brisk in its energy. It’s like the soundtrack to a bike ride in the park, but on a those darker overcast days. Not one of those overdramatic slow ballads that songs in that key tend to be.

Seems that this tracks looking in on a relationship where the lady involved wants to be famous, but the dude wants nothing to do with it. He gives her the advice he can while she’s out in the big world, telling her that he’ll always be a true friend. But in the end, things don’t turn out too well for her, and she’s taken advantage of and thrown to the wayside just like the many other unlucky people who look for the bright lights of Hollywood. Really I’ve never thought that much about the lyrics and had to go to songmeanings.com to see what other people’s perspectives were. This one seems logical enough to me. You can either love or hate frontperson Luke Pritchard’s vocals in general. I think they work the best on here. Plus, the guitar solo that closes this out is cool too. After being acoustic for the majority of its duration, that electric guitar comes in like a razor. Very sharp.