Album Review : The Cribs - In The Belly Of The Brazen Bull

The brothers Jarman are Wakefields best export, alongside Claire Cooper (Jackie McQueen in Hollyoaks), Jane McDonald (You know, the one off loose women?) and party music legends Black Lace (Agadoo do do and all that). For a temporary time a member of The Smiths played in their band and they were championed by Steve Lamacq from the word go.

Tipped in the early years as ‘the UK’s answer to The Strokes’ The Cribs attracted attention from numerous major record labels, with warehouse parties and a number of split 7‘ with other bands. They eventually decided to sign with Wichita Recordings.
 In 2004 they headed to London to record first album ‘The Cribs’ which included fan favourite ‘Another Number’ ‘You Were Always The One’ (#66) and ‘What About Me’(#75) with NME dubbing  “These songs will soundtrack every festival, every drunken snog and every intoxicated shimmy“ together with an 8/10 rating.

The summer season of festivals approached and left subsequently leading the band back into the studio, though The Cribs aren’t just any band. Deciding against shutting up shop to record next album ‘The New Fellas’ and they took themselves on the road posting online to play shows for beer and fuel. This approach has been lauded in helping make the band who they are today. ‘The New Fellas’ was recorded with singer-songwriter Edwyn Collins, who said whilst recording that “they were proper indie; everything done on a shoe-string. they were tremendous!”.

‘Hey Scenesters!’ lead as the first release from ‘The New Fellas’ paving the way for the album the go on and sell silver (250,000 records) and becoming an ‘Album of the decade’ as voted by Q magazine readers. In the aftermath of the release of ‘The New Fellas’ The Cribs went on to sign with Warner Bros but continued their affiliation with Wichita Recordings in the UK.

Pushing lo-fi to the side ‘Men’s Needs, Women’s Needs…Whatever’ took The Cribs to Canada for recording with Franz Ferdinand front man Alex Kapranos, whom they met and hit off with while touring with Death Cab For Cutie in the US. First release from the album ‘Men’s Needs’ reached #17 in the UK and was the bands biggest hit to date with the album coinciding entering at #13. Other released from the album were ‘Moving Pictures’ (#38) and double A side album opener ‘Our Bovine Public/Don’t you wanna be relevant?’. ‘I’m A Realist’ was also released on vinyl.

Joined by Johnny Marr after a long extensive summer of festival performances, the band took to LA and to recording ‘Ignore The Ignorant’. Widely regarded as the bands most successful album to date it  peaked at #8 in the UK album charts with single ‘Cheat On Me’ reaching #80. The band then appeared at Reading & Leeds festivals respectively where Johnny Marr was to play his last shows with the band and commit himself to solo work once again. Along with the departure of Marr, The Cribs announced in that they were aiming to release their next album in May 2012.

Feedback ensues throughout the first few bars of ‘In The Belly Of The Brazen Bull’ and first track ‘Glitters Like Gold’, which has a boorish lyrical approach ‘It's a straight/like a friend/then you can be what you want/good’ monotone vocal with clattering guitars. Single release ‘Come On, Be A No-One’ then takes full control from what felt like a spiralling opener, the ever present Cribs charm turns to 11 and you fall into the indie abyss.

‘Jaded Youth’ feels post-’New Fellas’, lo-fi and rough. What feels the actions of  a drunken Friday night. a courageous, fist throwing anthem spewing out past tense. A desperate romance follows with ‘Anna’ it’s heart felt and open, it’s feeling every string that females pull unknowingly on young men across the country and beyond, it’s everything that The Cribs are, Sinister and explicit yet sentient and acquaint.

We go deeper with ’Confident Men’, a self indulgent 3 minutes of a lonesome view through the pint glass, mirrored by an empty bar. Everything that whirls through you’re mind while you are alone, or surrounded and hopeless. We tread indulgence once more through ’Uptight’ which could attach itself to the story of earlier track ’Anna’. What is most notable on the album is lyrically, The Cribs seem to have found heart. Romanticism is ripe yet drowned destitution.

Hype track ‘Chi-Town’ brings us back to the brink of The Cribs, the obvious attitude surrounded by the right amount of boisterousness. A track that was played 3 times by Radio 1 DJ Zane Lowe which had the band and track name trending worldwide. Levelling out the playing field once again ’Pure O’ feels like a filler, the 2 cans you drink between the house you leave and the house you arrive at before a big night out. That big night out comes in the form of ’Back To The Bolthole’, the obvious swan song of ’In The Belly Of The Brazen Bull’. Imagine instead of initially smashing up the china shop, we browse and discuss our surroundings before the inevitable implosion and ‘Back To The Bolthole’ is just that. A clear 5 minutes of build and destroy.

Back to falling down the rabbit hole with acoustic ‘I should have helped’, a Jarman shaped confession, fathomed and misplaced among the more Indie-Punk driven tracks. ‘Stalagmites’ follows on from ‘Back To The Bolthole’ and it’s brazen assault adding the lo-fi of ‘Jaded Youth’ with a sprinkle of radio feedback. The emotional rollercoaster rolls on with ‘Butterflies’ which has a similar sound to The Cure, a ‘Boys don’t cry’ type acoustic guitar accompanies a gentle synth and Jarman vocal with xylophone breakdown. ‘Arena Rock Encore With Full Cast’ breaks out of the end of ‘butterflies’ with a choir of the Jarman brothers, what seems like apologising.

Most bands don’t reach the recording of 5 consecutive albums, most bands don’t manage to crack the American music charts, most bands aren’t The Cribs. ‘In The Belly Of The Brazen Bull’ is animalistic, strong and mature, a musical force to be reckoned with.

The brothers Jarman are Wakefield’s best export…