Review of The Cribs's CD "The New Fellas"

The Cribs: The New Fellas

As I sit down to write this review I find myself remembering last night at The Cockpit watching a hundred young trendies letting themselves go crazy to tracks on this album such as Hey Scenesters!, Mirror Kissers and The Wrong Way To Be.

Prior to that moment I was going to write a good to average review but when you see the effect that The Cribs' music has on a new generation of indie music lovers it's hard not to be affected yourself.

The aforementioned songs, and therefore the mainstay of tracks on The New Fellas, are often simple nuggets of shambolic pop that when sampled on your bedroom stereo can fail to make a lasting impression. Yet throw yourself around a dark, sweaty underground indie club full of Leeds 'Scenesters' (as The Cribs themselves would put it) you suddenly feel these songs grow in stature and begin to make some kind of sense.

In my hazy memory I recollect myself jerking around on the edge of the dance floor to Mirror Kissers in a state not dissimilar to a malfunctioning robot. And it is when I remember this that I realise that this album should not be disregarded, as some music magazines may want you to, but embraced as a moment in Leeds' transformation from music nobody to music somebody.

I won't claim that this album is fodder for those that consider themselves to be music aficionados. This is purely good time music for having a bloody good time to and there's nothing wrong with that.

The Cribs may never become a mainstream commercial success akin to the Chiefs but this album, as well as their debut, do seem forever destined to etch this band as at least a pivotal footnote in Leeds', and don't forget Wakefield's musical heritage.

• www.thecribs.com

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