Ensconced in a Tokyo hotel as part of his band’s recent Japanese tour, Kooks lead singer Luke Pritchard gave Guardian journalist Sophie Heawood the headline she craved by replying to her suggestion that “he  must feel like a hit machine” with “I am a hit machine…I just roll ‘em out.” Pritchard, though, has rather more in common, with Ray Davies, whose Konk studios provided the recording base for The Kooks’ sophomore album of the same name, than, say, Simon Cowell. And so this latest single finds an artist at work rather than a sales-accruing automaton.

(3¾/5)