The Cribs Mens Needs, Womens Needs, Whatever (Wichita)
4/5
By: Matt Tomiak
The third LP from the three Jarman brothers - a Wakefield, Yorkshire band previously noted for their hipster-baiting lyrics just as sharp as their spiky melodies- is sturdier, shinier and altogether less insular than their past work.
The opening track, 'Our Bovine Public', might fool you though. It isn't quite so different from The Cribs back catalogue: like The Strokes' '12:51' re-imagined for sweaty northern pub back rooms, dominated by Ryan Jarman's rapid-fire 20-something angst. But the majority of 'Men's Needs, Women's Needs, Whatever' juxtaposes scuzzy, punkish guitars and unrefined vocals with an impeccable pop polish, courtesy of Franz Ferdinand mainman Alex Kapranos' production skills.
Thanks to Kapranos, the band are presented here with an impeccably gleaming finish - 'Men's Needs' retains The Cribs' trademark parochial bitterness, opening with a sneering 'Have you noticed/I've never been impressed by your friends from New York or London?' but is as shiny and scrubbed as a pristine, box-fresh Ikea coffee table. Its female perspective riposte, 'Women's Needs', utilizes a beefy Pixies bass line and frenzied crescendo, and is just as glossy.
It's not that the gleaming new varnish has expunged the tunes- far from it. 'Moving Pictures' is this album's 'Martell', featuring simple, contagious bellow-a-long chorus. The immediate 'I'm A Realist' is amusingly forthright; it's emo, no-nonsense Yorkshire style ('I'm a realist/I'm a romantic/I'm an indecisive piece of shit.') 'Be Safe' meanwhile, features a irate American narrator who reels off a rambling tirade that even Thom Yorke might find a bit much - 'One of those f***ing awful black days when nothing is pleasing and everything that happens is an excuse for anger...these are the days when I hate the world...we each know our own fate...
The pensive 'I've Tried Everything' is just about the closest thing they've got to a ballad, and the dainty closer 'Shoot The Poets' completes a well-rounded album.
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