Johnny Marr officially joined The Cribs last year and his magic touch is all over this record. In fact, more than a few songs ring of ‘Panic’-era Smiths. But, and here’s the real miracle. all 12 tracks are still unmistakably Cribs-flavoured. Somehow drafting in indie’s most iconic guitarist has not watered down their trademark off-kilter rock sound, or even skewed it in any major way.
The sleazy, flat vocals, the uncomfortable post-punk bass, the large and in-charge guitar lines – they’re all here, sounding best on the bloodthirsty ‘Emasculate Me’ and the gloriously wild ‘City Of Bugs’.
Meanwhile, ‘Save Your Secrets’ is a sweet, Zombies-esque number with some seriously retro harmonies, a track on which the Yorkshire youths have strummed up something totally new.
What Unkie Marr’s presence has done is give the Wakefield lads a crash course in the art of understatement. There’s little of the ferocity and radio-friendliness of Men’s Needs, Women’s Needs, Whatever and Ryan Jarman is certainly not caterwauling in the same testosterone-fuelled way that was a trademark of earlier records.
Crucially, they’ve held onto the lyrical sarcasm that won us over back when they were newbies. Scenesters be warned: you may not rest easy in your thrift store Levi’s just yet, the Jarmans are still hot on your trail, with observations that poke fun at poseurs and hipsters.
They’re getting more political too. The title-track was written after a member of the British National Party won a seat in the European Parliamentary elections in their native Yorkshire. My guess is that the young rockers were well vexed. As Jarman sings: ‘It’s all a laugh because/I’m throwing England to the dogs/But anyway’.