Tom Warke reviews his Album of the Week – The Cribs’ latest release, In the Belly of the Brazen Bull…
English three-piece Indie band The Cribs, were formed in late 2001.
The band consists of twin brothers Gary and Ryan Jarman and their younger brother Ross Jarman.
In the early years they first played at venues such as the Brudenell Social Club in Leeds and in ‘squats’ and at ‘warehouse parties’. During this time they made a demo tape which became popular, and in 2003 Wichita Recordings signed The Cribs to their label.
After they signed the record deal, The Cribs began re-recording many of the songs from the demo and added new tracks to make their debut album, ‘The Cribs’ (2004). The album was well liked by NME who reviewed the album as 8 out of 10. During the time of their first album The Cribs performed at many international festivals such as Reading and Leeds, T in the Park and Summersonic.
The Cribs follow up album ‘The New Fellas’ was released in 2006. The first release from the album as a single was ‘Hey Scenesters!’ which reached 27th in the UK Charts. The band set out on increasing their international fan base and went on a world tour to places such as USA, Canada, Japan, Australia, Scandinavia and Iceland. In their year-end issue, the NME made ‘The New Fellas’ album of the year and ‘Hey Scenesters’ single of the year.
After the ‘The New Fellas’ campaign, The Cribs signed a major record label deal with Warner Bros. Records, however they still remained with Wichita in the UK. The bands third album ‘Men’s Needs, Women’s Needs, Whatever’ was released in 2007. The notable tracks from the album which helped The Cribs gain recognition is ‘Men’s Needs’, ‘Moving Pictures’ and ‘I’m a Realist’.
In 2009 The Cribs released their fourth studio album, ‘Ignore the Ignorant’. Notable tracks from this album were ‘We Share the Same Skies’ and ‘Cheat on Me’. With this album they were able to extend their growing reputation to make them one of today’s best known British acts. In 2008 Q described them as ‘the biggest cult band in the UK’.
Released on 7th May, The Cribs released their latest album ‘In the Belly of the Brazen Bull’.
This album starts off with a typical sounding Cribs track ‘Glitters like Gold’, catchy and heavy in guitar rhythms. Other stand out tracks from the album are ‘Come On, Be a No-One’, another typical Cribs track but with a more well developed feel. ‘Chi-Town’ is a very back-to-basics track, with live sounding vocals and a heavy rhythmic musical background, epitomising what The Cribs are about.
My favourite track from the album is ‘Arena Rock Encore With Full Cast’, the reason why is that it contains the lyrics “Sorry that it’s taken years/We were victims of our own ideals/But I’d rather be tied to myself than to anyone else”, it shows that after 10 years they still do things their own way and although misunderstood by others, they are loved by their fans for what they do best.
‘In the Belly of the Brazen Bull’ is available to buy on iTunes for £7.99, with individual tracks available for 99p – click on the ad below to buy now.