Education, Education, Education & War is the fifth studio album by English rock band Kaiser Chiefs, released on 31 March 2014 through Fiction Records, B-Unique Records, Caroline Records and ATO Records. It was produced by Ben H. Allen III, and is the first Kaiser Chiefs album recorded with new drummer Vijay Mistry. The album's name is partly a reference to a line in a famous 1996 speech by Tony Blair where he emphasised the importance of education, and partly referencing the controversial Iraqi war in which he involved the UK.[2]
On 5 December 2013, Kaiser Chiefs released a song titled "Misery Company" onto their SoundCloud account. The song had previously been performed live during the band's 2013 summer tour.[3][10]
On 3 January 2014, "Bows & Arrows" premiered on Rolling Stone magazine's website,[11] and on 6 January 2014, the song was released as a single in France.[12] According to singer Ricky Wilson, it was recorded in a studio under a McDonald's restaurant in Islington, and bassist Simon Rix came up with its title. Wilson said:
I liked the idea that bows and arrows are pretty useless on their own but when you get them together, they can be quite formidable. A bit like us lot, really. I love being in a band. It's daft to think you can do it alone. It's about not being afraid of emotion. It can be the strongest weapon we have. What's wrong with a load of blokes admitting they need each other? [It's] a sliver of hope through all the futility and loss on the record. You can also dance to it.[11]
On 13 February 2014, the first single for the album was released, titled "Coming Home" in the UK.[13][14][15][16]
On 19 March 2014, Kaiser Chiefs released a 15-minute video on YouTube which contained 1:30-long clips of each of the ten songs off the album.[17]
On 26 May 2014, the second single, "Meanwhile Up in Heaven", was released in the UK.[18]
On 24 June 2014, the third single, titled "My Life", was released in the UK.[19]
Education, Education, Education & War received mixed reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 59/100 ("mixed or average reviews"), based on nineteen reviews.[20]
At Alternative Press, Robert Ham rated the album three-and-a-half stars out of five, stating that the release "is a raging success" and writing that "Not everything hits the mark, but there is enough to delight in and offer plenty of hope for the Chiefs' future."[23] Ross Bennett of Mojo rated the album 3 stars out of 5, remarking that the release "finds them in defiant form."[27]
