Imagine for a moment the sinking Titanic of British indie, shipwrecked as it is on the iceberg of lady-helmed electropop. There’s a serious shortage of lifeboats, but thankfully Leeds’ The Cribs know the captain. Trodding on the heads of the Kaiser Chiefs, pushing aside the frozen half-corpses of the Pigeon Detectives, breaking the deathly grip of The View from their ankles the three Jarman brothers load their guitars into the dinghy, lead by the hand by… Johnny Marr?
Marr’s patronage post-Smiths has been, if not exactly puzzling, at least a little strange. Then again, the Cribs acceptance by those who see the NME as anathema has also been a little bewildering. While their still-best single Hey Scenesters demonstrated self-awareness of the shortcomings of their ilk, they never exactly tried to break free from that post-Strokes brat pack – certainly they’ve never seemed standout enough to warrant the collaborations with Sonic Youth’s Lee Ranaldo, Edwyn Collins, and Alex Kapranos that have bolstered their standing amongst the more effete branches of jangle-rock kids.
Perhaps the most sensible explanation is that the Cribs have filled the particular vacuum left by the passing of the Libertines and the inactivity of the Strokes – a rite of passage band, music for bros, made by bros, bought by bros. The bro continuum must never breakdown. Were The Smiths not one the main players in that continuum during their heyday? Morrissey was swinging flowers, but Marr was the ultimate bro. His guitar work has always been muscular, even on the Smiths more sensitive, plainitive moments – maybe his patronage of the Cribs makes sense after all.
The album’s eponymous track, Ignore The Ignorant is the only really Smithsy moment consigned to kilobytes here. It is also the sole upbeat number on an unexpectedly dirgy collection. The band’s particular brand of melody and heavily-accented crooning is still present, though tempered heavily by, dare I say it, maturity. Lead single Cheat On Me could be Man’s Needs played at the wrong speed, while We Were Aborted and Nothing justify the much-noted Sonic Youth influence.
And yet, the same shortcomings as ever pockmark Ignore The Ignorant – too little variety, a limited pallette, a niggling voice in the rear chambers of your brain whispering “I hope this is the last track” (incidentally, the last track, Stick To Yr Guns is actually rather more interesting as a sort of loungey slow-dance Herr Casablancas is quite fond of). But if their recent Academy show is anything to go by the above 415 words count for shit: The Cribs have their market cornered, everybody else (i.e., girls) are completely oblivious. Wherever there are bros, there are bros with guitars.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkJDKdOlUGQ
