The Kooks are an English pop rock band formed in 2004 in Brighton. The band currently consists of Luke Pritchard (vocals/rhythm guitar), Hugh Harris (lead guitar/synth), Alexis Nunez (drums), and Peter Denton (bass guitar). The original bassist was Max Rafferty, and the founding drummer was Paul Garred. The lineup of the band remained constant until the departure of Rafferty in 2008.

The Kooks have mentioned drawing on a number of varied sources to create their sound, listing the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, Bob Dylan and Chris de Burgh among influences on songwriting style and musical presentation over the course of their four albums.  The band's debut album Inside In/Inside Out was touted as a typical Britpop record, and was influenced by the Libertines, Thin Lizzy, the Police and containing elements of the 60s British pop movement. Pritchard's lyrical style was compared to that of a "younger, less pathetic version of Pete Doherty's mush-mouth style". The band themselves felt the album was not consistent in its direction. "The first record was definitely genre-hopping. [...] The first album was finding its feet, it was gadabout", said Harris in an interview for The Sunday Business Post.  On the follow-up Konk, the band attempted to find a more mature and polished sound. Drawing on a much wider choice of material for the album (about 80 to 90 new songs had been accumulated within the band's repertoire by this stage), the band began to incorporate more a hard-edged rock focus into their music. Critics drew comparisons to the work of The Kinks throughout the album, it being recorded at the studio owned by Ray Davies. Also noted were the band's growing similarities in musical direction to The Fratellis and the Arctic Monkeys. "I think we've made a dynamic album", Pritchard said. "Every song has its own character. It's a good pop album."  The most recent album, Listen, includes much more percussion and cross rhythms than previous material. Pritchard described the band's most recent album Listen as "percussion sonnets". "The first couple albums I made I never really thought about rhythms, I focused on the recording and the lyrics", Pritchard said.

Did Thin Lizzy say anything about the Kooks influence on their music?
containing elements of the 60s