Tellingly for an indie band who have up until now always been better known as lots of other indie bands’ favourite indie band, for their third album The Cribs have got one superfan – Alex Kapranos – to show them where he’s been going right and they’ve been going wrong by helping out with production duties.
For his part, the Franz Ferdinand leader has convinced the trio that the punk-pop of ‘Girls Like Mystery’ and ‘Moving Pictures’ would benefit massively from not sounding – as the songs on last album ‘The New Fellas’ did – like they were recorded in a bin. A crucial contribution, as while The Cribs’ sonic template is not exactly imaginative (they make fairly standard issue, stripped-down indie), one thing they are pretty good at is writing melodies.
Now though, on the likes of single ‘Men’s Needs’, you can actually hear them. Until they get a little more adventurous though, it’s likely that The Cribs will continue to have famous friends rather than peers.
