ALBUM REVIEW: The Cribs – Selling A Vibe (Play It Again Sam)
Can it really be 25 years since this band of brothers emerged from Wakefield, West Yorkshire, into a music industry awash with the sort of groups now known as indie-sleaze?
The fact The Cribs outlasted most of their contemporaries to produce this ninth studio album and not just survive but thrive confirms that to be the case, even if it is their first full-length release in over five years.
It nearly didn’t happen; the trio considered throwing in the towel after 18 months of legal wrangles with their former management, but happily for their devoted fanbase decided to regroup and carried on.
The resulting album, 2020’s Night Network (reviewed here), was fresh-sounding and as vital as anything they’d ever done, but it was released against a backdrop of Covid-19 lockdowns, and they were unable to tour it.
Although geography means they’re spread across three different time zones nowadays – guitarist Ryan in Queens, New York, bassist Gary in Portland, Oregon, and drummer Ross in Wakefield – spending some quality time together meant they started vibing again.
And what is this vibe, you might ask? Well, it’s about being precisely what they are, a band of brothers, and working with producer Patrick Wimberly (Beyonce, MGMT, Ellie Goulding) they have come up with a very personal-sounding album which is a bit more of a slow-burning than its predecessor.
Dark Luck opens things in typical lo-fi Cribs fashion, full of stop-start fuzzy guitar, and it gives way to title track Selling A Vibe, even slower but packed with harmonies.
Classic Cribs
The pace picks up with previous single A Point Too Hard To Make, which features those classic Cribs call-and-response dual vocals; it seems to have a confessional tone, about past mistakes.
Latest single Never The Same is another jaunty little number, written for former One Direction singer Louis Tomlinson, but they liked it so much they kept it for themselves. It’s about feeling like a different person at this point in life, and missing the chaos of your previous existence, even if it doesn’t make sense any more.
A run of four regretful songs which sound like they’re about relationships starts with lead single Summer Seizures, and ends with You’ll Tell Me Anything, which is based around an urgent, repeated riff; more classic Cribs.
There’s a real wistful feel to Rose Mist, which sees the trio at their poppiest, but harks back to a missed opportunity: “By the time they both would know/Yeah, the young love found them old, old.”
Celebration
The gently lilting Distractions seems to be another song about an ex, before things end with one of the album’s strongest songs, Brothers Won’t Break – a celebration of who they are and what they’ve been through.
Selling A Vibe has taken so long because now they’re in charge of their own destiny, The Cribs only release music when it feels like they have something new to contribute.
It doesn’t quite reach the heights of Night Network, which for me is right up there with their best work, but it’s a grower which improves with repeated listens. It’s great to have The Cribs back, making the sort of music only they can. 8/10
- The Cribs hit the road today for a week of instore shows to promote Selling A Vibe, before embarking on a full UK tour in March. Tickets are available HERE.
