Album of the year out today

[EFM The Firm, The Voice]

Art Brut - Bang Bang Rock'n'Roll

 

The debut album of the mighty fine ART BRUT is out today, go and buy it and stop listening to that crap you normally do.

 

New Cross heroes Art Brut, coming from the same scene that spawned Bloc Party, Babyshambles and The Others, release their eagerly anticipated debut album. From the NME Single Of The Week brilliance of ‘Formed A Band’, which acts like a manifesto for their self-referential and stripped down punk-rock musings, ‘Bang Bang Rock And Roll’ traverses between scenester-baiting anthems (‘My Little Brother’, ‘Bad Weekend’) and honest tales of young love and lust (‘Emily Kane’, ‘Good Weekend’) with enough genuine charm and honest detail to remain just the right side of ironic.

From www.hmv.com

----------------------------------------------------------------------

 

How many times, in the post-Strokes r‘n’r landscape we inhabit, have you heard a band say “Well, ha! We annoyed you and therefore we obviously caused a reaction!” What, and so you succeeded?! Don’t know about you, but I wanna be moved rather than annoyed by a lack of substance in my bands, and you can’t even tell such charlatans to [****!!****] off ‘cos it’d just fuel their pithy, pointless reasons for making music.

Art Brut aren’t that sort of band. I feel adverse to say how they’ve split opinion to such a polar extent because often that sounds like a by-product of vacuous hype. But every letters page, messageboard and heckle that’s been about them since Rough Trade unleashed ‘Formed A Band’ all those months ago has come across like the proverbial line in the sand. On one side there’s those saluting their scattergun tunes expressing pent-up modern suburbia and adolescent frustration, and on the other there’s those who think that they don’t mean it, that this is all some sort of joke, and have hence dismissed them as the pseudo-ironic, intermediate Ikara Colt. I’m with the former, and after hearing debut album ‘Bang Bang Rock And Roll’ I can say that, if it is some sort of joke all along, I’m not so much laughing as dancing like a monkey on fire.

 

Hang on, you say. “pent-up modern suburbia”? “Adolescent frustration”? Doesn’t this make the Brut a guitar-toting New Cross Streets or the shoutier millennial Jilted John for the hairstyle-obsessed scenesters? Well, perhaps, if ‘Fight’ (“Wassa matter? Wut? Nothin’?”) and ‘Emily Kane’ (“I want schoolkids on buses singing your name”) are anything to go by, respectively. But it’s much more than that, and ‘BBR&R’ has more in common with The Jam’s riffing, Mark E Smith’s delivery, Pulp’s portrayal of (eek!) working class emotion and…dare I say it…the original punk attitude than most will readily admit to. Such analytical musings should be banished, though, when you’ve got a guy screaming “MODERN ART! MAKES ME! WANT TO ROCK OUT!” This isn’t irony, it’s barely rock n’ roll, it’s just life imitating art and art writing explosive, truly thrilling post-Britpop art-punk monologues about it.

 

Okay, so maybe ‘Stand Down’ is an ill-advised stab at politics, and Eddie Argos’ tale of not being able to get it up in ‘Rusted Guns Of Milan’ is a bit more information about his personal life than we would’ve liked (“I’m fine when I am with my own hand”…uh, thanks for sharing, Eddie). Even if the steady harmonies and “I know I can” refrain make it sound like a cross between Supergrass’ ‘Caught By The Fuzz’ at the wrong speed and the locomotive in ‘Dumbo’. But, well, it wouldn’t be much fun if things were perfect, would it? As for the remainder, its astounding that AB can reel off so many downright enjoyable songs that it almost hurts. ‘Formed A Band’ is revisited with a renewed, nearly Pixies-esque shouty vigour, no longer as much a call to arms as a celebration that they’re still together over a year later. ‘Emily Kane’ says more about unrequited teenage kicks than any textbook on the hormonal process could. And if ‘Moving To LA’’s exotic strumming and sweet escapism doesn’t get them on their beloved Top Of The Pops then the BBC doesn’t know what’s good for them. If you were worried that ‘BBR&R' might not deliver then here’s the pudding with a side order of, ahem, proof custard.

 

Dye your hair black, stay off the crack. Buy this album, see ‘em live, and go form a band. I’d love to see the look on Fearne Cotton’s face.

From www.drownedinsound.com - 9/10

 

----------------------------------------------------------------------

 

After first single "Formed A Band" which was brilliant, I will admit I fell in love right away. But I did not really expect that there should be a great debut. The songs here are clever, witty and fun. There's not much out there better than "Emily Kane" really.

 

"Formed A Band" kicks us off and it's a tale of forming a band and their plans such as "writing a song to make Israel and Palestine get a long." After hearing this one you wished you wrote it, and then you will want to start a band. "Emily Kane" is Art Brut's love song but it with its honest lyrics and sincere deliver it works. Everyone has had an Emily Kane in their lives and what a name that is. "Modern Art" is about being thrown out of art galleries and well its essential! "Good Weekend" is the story of getting a new girlfriend. Eddie is singing "I've seen her naked twice" and its sounds like a good weekend there. "Moving To LA" is a bit of a slower tune. They band grabs out the acoustic and Eddie is croon about his desire to move to LA. The hook is absolutely genius. "Bad Weekend" features the great line "popular culture no longer applies to me" and what a fitting line for Art Brut as we really can't group their genius with anything else. The album finishes off on a lighter note with "18,000 lire" barely passes a minute in length and talks about well lire.

 

You won't hear much like this out there. Art Brut do things a little differently. Do yourselves a favor listen and fall in love. I love this record.

From www.comfortcomes.com 9.6 out of 10

 

----------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Bang Bang, Wok and Roe, possibly the best name for a Chinese food outlet ever, and almost the name of the new Art Brut album. Which is fantastic by the way.

 

And there you were thinking it was going to be a bit iffy weren't you? Well you were wrong, so eat those thoughts. If Elvis Costello was the poet laureate of punk, then Eddie Argos takes on the mantle for the current wave of British guitar bands cluttering up the sweat pits across this green and unpleasant land. But in Argos' imagination and eccentricity, he far transcends the general malaise and lack of originality prevalent among his young and supposedly dangerous peers. Unlike Costello though, Argos is overtly funny, and never arch. What he manages to achieve -­ and this is a difficult trick - is being witty without ever coming across as snide or unnecessarily caustic. Art Brut's view of the world is goofy and self-conscious, all done with a self-effacing style that endears them to the listener, if the listener is paying close enough attention.

 

A song like 'Rusted Guns of Milan' about that alarming circumstance many men face, where the old chap just won't go up (that must be terrible, that) could have been trite, but Art Brut manage to capture the balance between comedy and pathos; the anguish and anxiety of the man, as the ridiculousness of the whole situation felt by both parties. "It doesn't mean that I don't love you," he laments, "one more try with me above you."

 

To counter this, there's the wonderful folly of 'Good Weekend', where Eddie has fallen in love again. "The first time I saw her, I wanted more than just to hold her, I wanted to bend her and fold her..." he tells us - before he expounds on the joys of sex. "I've seen her naked twice!" he bellows disbelievingly, and instead of being sleazy it comes across as totally charming. 'Emily Kane', a sweet song about not being able to get over a first love, completes this excellent trinity.

 

Other, less obvious themes are explored throughout. 'Modern Art' is about, well - getting a kick out of modern art, containing an uproarious tale about charging exhibits Don Quixote style in the Pompidou ("that's in Paris!"). Then there are tracks about forming a band ('Formed a Band'), about your little brother discovering rock & roll ('My Little Brother'), and the title track, perhaps the only antagonistic song within, about not being into drugs at all.

 

If I've not talked about the music, it's because the music is always secondary where Art Brut are concerned, though on this record they do actually sound like a good band, much better than competent, sometimes even exuberant. Ultimately though, they're a platform for Argos to show off his considerable talent.

 

What's so cool about Art Brut, is the fact it never entered their heads to try and be cool, a stumbling block for all too many groups starting out. This, remember, is a group with a Su Polland lookalike on guitar who calls himself Chris Chinchilla. 'Bang Bang Rock & Roll' is as clever as it is funny as it is entertaining. It's the most original independent album in years, and the reason this year, which was beginning to feel anti-climactic, may well he remembered as a vintage. In short, 'Bang Bang Rock & Roll' is as clear as crystal a piece of untainted genius.

From www.playlouder.com - 5/5 - Work of genius

 

----------------------------------------------------------------------

 

For many, art and pop are opposite ends of the creative spectrum. However, Art Brut's catchy tunes about wayward siblings, lost love and erectile dysfunction laugh in the face of such distinctions and threaten to cause unprovoked thinking on the dancefloor.

 

Although named after a 1940s outsider art movement, the band's aesthetics are simple: "Modern art makes me want to rock out," yells the dapper frontman Eddie Argos over the kind of scuzzy-perfect pop at which Elastica excelled. Soundwise, guitars reminiscent of Magazine and T.Rex jamming in the back room of a Camden boozer meet stomping rhythms and hilarious Morrissey-esque one-liners. The most refreshing aspect of Art Brut is their sheer joyfulness, often mistaken for irony. "We're gonna write a song as universal as Happy Birthday/ and play it on Top Of The Pops for eight weeks in a row," enthuses Argos. If only.

From The Sunday Times 4/5

 

----------------------------------------------------------------------

 

MOJO : 4/5

'Every Generation needs an Art Brut...'

 

The Fly : 4.5/5

 

Uncut : 4/5

'Smart Subversives...'

 

NME : 7/10

'DIY as it should be'

 

Zoo

'One of the years belters'

 

Front : 3/5

 

Guardian : 3/5

 

Although Q gave it 2/5

 

Anyway go and buy it!

 

[Electric ~soul~]

1. Errr... how much commission are you on!

 

2. Album of the year? It's May!! <img src="/forum/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

 

3. Not thanks!

[EFM The Firm, The Voice]

1. Kevin, I mean Eddie is obviously a good mate of mine and I'll always plug my mates bands

 

2. YELLOW will confirm that album's of the year can be released in May <img src="/forum/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

 

3. I think you mean No Thanks! - However that's some impressive reviews.

[Electric ~soul~]

Yeah, impressive reviews, except HMV and the Sunday Times are the only ones I've actually heard of!

 

And HMV are trying to flog the damn thing!!

[EFM The Firm, The Voice]

You haven't heard of NME, Mojo, Uncut, Q then?

 

Just how many publications/websites have you heard of?

[Electric ~soul~]