The Cribs open up the family business to indie heavyweight Johnny Marr, to harvest Ignore the Ignorant. The last round, in their corner, Franz Ferdinand’s Alex Kapranos produced Men’s Needs, Women’s Needs, Whatever, but he was never shoulder-to-shoulder in the ruck. Brothers Gary, Ryan and Ross Jarman are Brits from Wakefield that roll their Rs in Hari Kari, and new addition Marr may be an indie god, but he can’t play savior with just his guitar jangles. Not that there’s anything uber-lame with the album, but there’s nothing uber-fantastic about it either. Maybe I just had high expectations for producer Nick Launay (Arcade Fire, Yeah Yeah Yeahs) and that has tainted my estimation of the new record. Other critics blame the lamenting scratches of Gary’s vocals, apparent on the track Nothing, but I’m particularly fond of his glib. He enunciates for the hard to hear, an unconventional quality these days when rockers tend to mumble through their lyrical verse; he screeches when he strains for higher louder notes, and come what may, it works when he hollers, “Cheat on Me.” With low registers in Stick to Yr Guns and doo-wop traces in Last Year’s Snow, The Cribs, trot out to the world that they are bona fide machines in the métier of making music. The cocky Cribs are still one of U.K.’s beloved cult bands, and albeit it’s not a stellar five-star album output, it’s a rockin’ frolickin’ good time.
Key Tracks: Cheat On Me, We Were Aborted, We Share the Same Skies
Moods: Wry, Witty, Lively, Fiery, Confident, Freewheeling
Buy: Ignore the Ignorant
related
- Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Tonight @ Festival d’été de Québec
- Promising NYC Artist Dash Snow Passes At 27
- Yeah Yeah Yeahs – It’s Blitz!
