The Kooks

The Kooks are a British rock band formed in Brighton, England, in 2004, built around singer-guitarist Luke Pritchard and guitarist Hugh Harris, with an original rhythm section of bassist Max Rafferty and drummer Paul Garred. Signed to Virgin Records within months of forming, they became one of the defining bands of the mid-2000s indie-rock revival, channelling 1960s British Invasion melodicism through jangly guitars and post-punk-inflected energy.

Their 2006 debut album, Inside In/Inside Out, turned them into a mainstream success in the UK, spawning hits such as «Naive» and «She Moves in Her Own Way» and earning them a Best UK & Ireland Act award at the MTV Europe Music Awards. The follow-up, Konk, released in 2008, debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart, cementing the band's commercial standing even as their lineup began to shift, with Rafferty departing after its completion.

Across subsequent albums the band continued blending catchy, hook-driven songwriting with a warm, guitar-pop sensibility, moving between rockier and more polished pop textures while retaining Pritchard's distinctive, conversational vocal style. Songs like «Junk of the Heart (Happy)» and «Bad Habit» show their enduring ability to pair melodic accessibility with an underlying indie-rock edge, keeping them a fixture of British guitar music for two decades.