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Album Review: Art Brut comes back good
Wham! Bang! Pow! Let’s Rock Out! is endlessly punchy and memorable front to back, with almost all of the tracks gearing an immediate punch, both in delivery and through their hooks.
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Wham! Bang! Pow! Let's Rock Out! by Art Brut (Alcopop! Records/File)
O
n their 2005 debut, Bang Bang Rock & Roll, art punkers Art Brut managed to stand out from the endless horde of “garage rock” bands that were popping out all over the indie tabloids, all with very similar sounds and all being heralded as the next big thing or saviors of rock.
While Art Brut weren’t part of that era’s indie-awakening like The Strokes or The White Stripes, their music was imbued with a knowingness and humor that was still novel back then.
Eddie Argos’ speak-sing vocals may reference a lot of past front men (The Fall’s Mark E. Smith being the obvious one), but it was a perfect topping for the immaculately catchy melodic rock cake his band was roaring with.
Those garage or post-punk tracks turned from being simply pleasant rockers to something clever, cheeky and, yes, edgier with Argos’ vocals riding on top of them. His lyrics were dipped with slightly tongue-in-cheek arrogance (not that original for a rock ‘n’ roll singer that) and his delivery was instantaneously memorable, making every verse feel more jagged and every chorus more explosive.
After all, one of the band’s earliest singles was a track about forming the band and then immediately turning into critical darlings, which was indeed a trajectory they were lucky to experience.
Now, seven years after their last album, 2011’s Brilliant! Tragic! (produced by head Pixies Frank Black), Argos makes a return with an album that is almost deserving of that good ol’ “comeback album” title.
Wham! Bang! Pow! Let’s Rock Out! is endlessly punchy and memorable front to back, with almost all of the tracks gearing an immediate punch, both in delivery and through their hooks.
From opener “Hooray!” (the band sure loves exclamation marks) to closer “Your Enemies Are My Enemies Too”, the momentum never lets up. This means that these aren’t the most dynamic experience, but like Art Brut’s earliest releases, a party pleaser with lyrics smarter than expected.
The guitars crank with clarity and the rhythms are always percussive and forward-moving. There’s nary a moment that waivers from this kinetic motion and the record feels all the better for it.
The change comes in the lyrical department, with Argos donning a much subtler, humbler perspective. The fire comes no longer from cynical (sarcastic?) knowing, but from a more contented sight.
In “Kultfigur” he sings of the band’s mid-level “indie” rock fame with glory, referencing cult figures and concluding that he shouldn’t “snigger” because “it’s not about making the audience bigger”.
While saying things in a direct manner has always been part of the charm, Argos’ more optimistic perception feels refreshing.
Even a bout with diverticulitis results in the zippy “Hospital!” with Argo singing of staying “Away from drinks and drugs” when he gets out of the hospital and promising that “When I get out of hospital, I’m gonna be unstoppable”. There is even an Amy Winehouse referencing: “They tried to make go to rehab/I said, that’s probably a good idea”. It’s hilarious and fun in all the right ways.
In the same vein, the perceptive “Too Clever” has Argo admitting that “I’m too clever/For my own damn good”. Even bitterness finds a sense of closure; he laments a break-up by stating at first that “I suffer from sentimentality/So I destroyed everything/You ever gave me” before concluding as per the song title that “I hope you’re very happy together/And if you’re not, that’s even better”.
Throughout, the songs match the lyrical wit. There’s an endless stream of immediately memorable hooks, all through the verses and choruses.
The band — long timers guitarist Ian Catskilkin and bass player Freddy Feedback, plus relatively newer guitarist Toby MacFarlaine and very new drummer Charlie Layton (of The Wedding Present) — plays arrangements that seem simple at a glance but feature a lot of pulls and punches to let every section feel as good or better than what came before it. Theirs is a playing that is as solid as it is consciously loose in execution.
Wham! Bang! Pow! Let’s Rock Out! is an endlessly joyful album to listen to and an instance where artistic cleverness manages to not be off-putting. Backed with some of the best songs in their career and most-relatable lyrics in a while, Art Brut may have well made a comeback without anyone really thinking they were ever gone.
