With each album, the Cribs have gotten a little sharper and more focused, and nowhere is this clearer than on the brilliantly named Men's Needs, Women's Needs, Whatever, the band's major-label debut. The Cribs enlisted Franz Ferdinand's Alex Kapranos as producer, and it's a good match: while he doesn't impose too much of Franz's clockwork precision on the band, Kapranos reins in the Cribs' more shambling tendencies just enough to make Men's Needs, Women's Needs, Whatever their most listenable, and diverse, work yet. The album kicks off with a slew of bouncy, angular songs about awkward relationships and killer crushes that sound like state-of-the-art British indie circa the late 2000s -- in particular, "Our Bovine Public"'s ridiculously catchy melody and punchy drums feel like the results of an experiment to fuse together Maxďmo Park, the Futureheads, and Good Shoes in some secret lab. "Girls Like Mystery" and "I'm a Realist" (which states, bluntly, "I'm an indecisive piece of sh*t") follow suit with more witty lyrics, sweet harmonies, and big, rousing choruses. As good as these songs are, they're so much in the template of this kind of British indie that they run the risk of sounding like caricatures. However, as Men's Needs, Women's Needs, Whatever unfolds, the Cribs expand their sound. Interestingly, they distinguish themselves from other like-minded British bands by adding influences from American acts like Weezer and the Strokes. Ryan Jarman often sounds like a British Rivers Cuomo, especially on "Moving Pictures," while jaunty, vulnerable songs about emptiness like "I've Tried Everything" and "My Life Flashed Before My Eyes" would fit right in with the work of Julian Casablancas and company. "Be Safe" boasts a poetic rant by Sonic Youth's Lee Ranaldo and sounds, in the best possible way, like some great lost alt-rock song from 1995. It's easily the best song on the album, which is kind of a shame since the Cribs (probably) can't recruit Ranaldo to be their full-time frontman. Fortunately, the tracks that follow it -- especially "Shoot the Poets," the pretty, slightly twangy acoustic song that closes the album -- show that the Cribs' music can't be typecast quite as easily as earlier songs suggested. The Cribs aren't strikingly original -- yet -- but this album sums up where they've been, and where they could go, nicely.
*1- The Cribs: Men's Needs*It's a sign of these metrosexual times that the pop world's most radical feminist is a man. In down-to-earth Northern English tones Ryan Jarmin gets real on the subject of sexual politics in _Men's Needs_. His narrator informs a girlfriend that "man's needs are full of greed...girl's needs just don't agree", and in doing so, probably ruins the chance of getting his le...
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There's an idiom that people use to describe the event in which a new addition to an old stereotype pushes beyond the status quo and generates a new medium or, as middle management would say, "a new paradigm". The expression I refer to is "broke the mould". After almost ten years of fairly consistent releases by British and New York bands that rely on the dancy, post-punk sound, borrowing most ...
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*I'm A Realist*(just love how they avoid mouthing the brown word in the video)The past two weeks, I've been getting my head handed to me at work, but I've had one musical ray of sunshine. I've been listening to The Cribs' latest album on repeat frequently, and it's made things slightly more bearable. These guys really know their way around a catchy chorus, without a lot of frills. It's just wel...
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*1- The Cribs: Men's Needs*It's a sign of these metrosexual times that the pop world's most radical feminist is a man. In down-to-earth Northern English tones Ryan Jarmin gets real on the subject of sexual politics in _Men's Needs_. His narrator informs a girlfriend that "man's needs are full of greed...girl's needs just don't agree", and in doing so, probably ruins the chance of getting his le...
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.The Cribs have been speaking to bbc6music about working with legendary guitarist Johnny Marr..The band from Wakefield spent most of last week in the studio with the ex-Smiths guitarist, in Stockport..Bassist Gary Jarman told Nemone on 6 Music this afternoon that it's been a bit of a whirlwind, but there should be a good result: "You could not wish for a better dream... our dream guitarist, the...
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The Cribs have announced a whirlwind US tour with 14 shows spanning a mere two and a half weeks, leading up to their performance at Lollapalooza fest on August 5th. The UK rockers will likely play new material from their new album, Men's Needs, Women's Needs, Whatever. The album has already been released in their UK home and on iTunes, but doesn't hit US soil until July 17th. They play a fes...
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yo,first off, thanks so much to everyone who came out to my solo shows this past month! i had a blast and i hope you guys did, too...those of you who came early to the DCFC/Franz Ferdinand dates last spring got to see a fantastic band from Wakefield, England called the Cribs. over the course of those six weeks, the brothers Cribs drove over 10,000 miles and a van accross the US and Canada kil...
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There's an idiom that people use to describe the event in which a new addition to an old stereotype pushes beyond the status quo and generates a new medium or, as middle management would say, "a new paradigm". The expression I refer to is "broke the mould". After almost ten years of fairly consistent releases by British and New York bands that rely on the dancy, post-punk sound, borrowing most ...
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The Cribs are about to drop their third single from their LP Men's Needs, Women’s Needs, Whatever. The new single is "Don't You Wanna Be Relevant?" with "Bovine Public" on the B-side and it will be available via Wichita on October 29th. In preparation for the new release, The Cribs have filmed videos for each song and released them both this week. Here is "Don't You Wanna Be Relevant?":and h.
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Although the indie world seems to have unprecedented reverence for the Cribs, I personally never heard anything that made me want to go out and buy something. I heard Men's Needs as explained below once it was number one in the NME charts, and it made me want to hear more. Having got my hands on a copy of their album I can say it would be a severe travesty of justice if this album is not hugely...
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The Cribs will be playing at Johnny Brenda's on August 10th in support of there album 'Man's Needs, Women's Needs, Whatever.' Tickets are $10 and can be purchased via Ticketweb, at the door, or at A.K.A. Records (who lovingly had the album for sale weeks early...gotta love how we sell cds/lps weeks before they are officially released). 'Man's Needs...' marks the third album from the brothers ...
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| Title | Lyrics | Buy |
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| 1 Our Bovine Public |
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| 2 Girls Like Mystery |
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| 3 Men's Needs |
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| 4 Moving Pictures |
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| 5 I'm a Realist |
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| 6 Major's Titling Victory |
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| 7 Women's Needs |
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| 8 I've Tried Everything |
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| 9 My Life Flashed Before My Eyes |
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| 10 Be Safe |
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| 11 Ancient History |
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| 12 Shoot the Poets |
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Click to purchase…
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 "Men's Needs, Women's Needs, Whatever")
