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The Cribs

The Cribs

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Customer Reviews

Fantastic debut album, a must have for any fan

This album's great, The track 'Another Number' is my favouraite track from the album...and prob one of my favouraite cribs songs from all of the four albums. Also, tracks 'What About me' and 'You Were Always the One' are great and fully display the potential the cribs had at the time. A must have for any fan of the cribs. This album paved the way to the even better albums which followed, i would give it five stars but I don't feel its on par with 'Men's needs, women's needs, whatever (Their third album) and therefore i feel it's just off revieving 5 stars.

Just another album by an-other band...

So, I'm guessing you know all about The Cribs then, yeah? What? Johnny who? Sit down and shut up for a minute; The Cribs may well have a flashy new album out with a flashy new world renowned guitarist to play with, but this is where it all started. This is where the seed was planted, this is where the magic came about. Who needs production values or 80 tracks to record on to? 'The Cribs' is a work of unprecedented genius, and it's high time you recognised the band's eponymous debut for the hidden gem that it truly is.

Let's get down to brass tacks then: in 2001, a couple of Yorkshire brothers developed a knack for playing some twangy bits of wood and bashing some drums in. It's the most hackneyed, cliched story in the music business - but don't roll your eyes in pretentious despair just yet, because there's a catch.

That's right, these 'Cribs' as they titled themselves became something of a live smash hit, making up for their underfunded live shows with exuberantly enthusiastic personas, mixed in with a splash of refined intelligence and ironic wit to boot.

"Now this is all well and good", I hear you churn, "But what has this got to do with the mu-usic?". Well, segueing into my review now with the eloquence of a ballet dancer made out of bricks, this album is surely an indicator that it's not just The Cribs' cooler-than-a-fridge-made-of-ice attitudes that have certified them a place in Indie history. Although it may sound as if it's been recorded from inside a watermelon at first, 'The Cribs' quickly and elegantly turns into an album that you just can't help but play once more. Opener 'The Watch Trick' is a quirky number that (perhaps in the same vain as 'Love Will Tear Us Apart') combines an upbeat enough tune with some poignant, blunt lyrics - track one and we're already applying some meaningful, effective musical techniques? Oh Cribs, you do spoil us.

The first part of the album carries on in much of the same vain, perhaps leaving the shroud of drab, grey atmosphere the lyrics of 'The Watch Trick', and almost regressing to the tried and tested method of "failed relationship lyrics". The following track, 'You Were Always The One' is one to take note of (you'll be having that one on repeat for hours at a time), as is downpaced, minimal lyriced 'You & I', a poetic journey into bassist Gary's psyche - an unmissable experience!

Now on to what if often considered the magnum opus of 'The Cribs'; it's catchy, it's cool and it'll stay with you until the end of your days. Dah-dah-dahdah-doo-dah-dah. Can you tell what it is yet? No, it's not Rolf Harris' cameo [shudder], it's only Another Number! From the instant you hear that first high-pitched, screechy, almost piercing riff, you know it's going to be a belter of a song - and it does not disappoint. I mean, it even got a full paragraph in my review!

A full paragraph!

Moving swiftly on, and next track 'What About Me?' just seems to bould on the euphoria created by 'Another Number'. With a standard 2-chord verse, 2-chord chorus, 'What About Me?' anchord itself as a classic Punk track - and a personal anthem for me.

Don't get too exited though: 'Learning How To Fight' and 'Tri'elle', the subsequent two tracks are just what you need to put a damper on your mood - but who said that was a bad thing? Again, drawing on the "left by my love" theme, The Cribs manage to create a sense of clear melancholy that you can still nod your head too - not bad for a debut album recorded in just one week, is it?

'Baby Don't Sweat' seems to be some sort of musical I.O.U., with vocalist Ryan Jarman professing his debt to someone who no doubt changed his life - and provided us humble listeners with another great Cribs track to listen to. The ascending guitar riff is great in this one, almost leading on to the penultimate track, 'Direction', an absolutely existentially brilliant song, and my personal favourite from the album. Starting off with a snappy, blunt guitar sound, 'Direction' quickly evolves into a densely layered, brilliantly executed song of many sounds and many secrets. Who can say what's so good about it? Is it the constantly changing verses? Is it the blinding guitar solo at the end? Or is it the repetition of the smashing line that gives the song its name? One more time, everybody: "it's caaaaaaaled, direeection!".

After such a cornucopia of brilliant sounding songs, you'd think that the The Cribs would leave their listeners in the wake of their album, happy and musically well-fed. Not contect with that, the boys return for one last, five minute outing, the 'Third Outing' to be precise. This track tends to reflect upon the boys' earlier days as avant-garde musicians, with erratic guitars, incoherent, whiny vocals, and a culmination featuring an unexpected voice warp, topped off nicely with a barely audible piano jingle some thirty seconds later.

So, all in all then, it's hard to pinpoint what makes 'The Cribs' such a brilliant album. Is it that it's relatable on so many levels, or is it that it's so good for a debut? Is it that nobody expected anything good from these humble Yorkshire lads, or is it that they did - and their expectations were exceeded anyway? No, I don't think it's any of these things. What I think makes 'The Cribs' a truly special album is that any die hard Cribs fan can listen to it and remenisce of days gone by - of days filled with dingy clubs and whiny vocals; days of obscurity and tight-fitting clothing; but most importantly, days when The Cribs were the Cribs.

Biography

Formed: 2003 in Yorkshire, England

Genre: Alternative

Years Active: '00s, '10s

Yorkshire, England's the Cribs feature three brothers: vocalists/guitarist Ryan Jarman, bassist/vocalist Gary, and drummer Ross. The trio began playing together at an early age, making their debut at a family party in the late '80s when twins Gary and Ryan were nine years old and Ross was just five. The brothers grew up with similar musical tastes, blending quintessentially British influences like the Beatles, Sex Pistols, and Smiths with American indie rock like Beat Happening and Bobby Conn. Eventually,...
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