The Cribs - Ignore the Ignorant

So album number one gained you a glowing reputation and the difficult second album turned out to be a stormer. Number three only increased the momentum and wielded your biggest hit to date. What next then? Probably best to hire the guitarist from The Smiths I suppose. Such is the odd and wonderful tale of The Cribs and after two years spent growing accustomed to their new member ‘Ignore the Ignorant’ finally reaches the shelves.

The big question posed by the record is not hard to spot. At last years Glasgow gig, and I presume gigs worldwide, the audience formed a rather odd shape. All was as it should be apart from the incredibly busy spot of clamouring fans standing to the left of the stage and straining every fibre of their being to be a little closer to a legend. So is this an album overshadowed by new presence or simply more of the same?

Immediately, in classic Cribs fashion, any worries that this is a new direction or a new sound are allayed. We Were Aborted is a no-nonsense affair full of clattering guitars and a spiky chorus that get things off to an aggressive, confident start. The opener sets the tone for an album of punchy tracks that have lost nothing of the old the charm.

Marr’s integration into the band is certainly noticeable, but noticeable for all the right reasons. Every now and then a trademark flicker of guitar is quite unmistakably his however nothing has been compromised to integrate the new sound. Indeed the cleaner, sharper touches nestle beautifully amidst the standard Cribs melee of noise and serve only to draw character. Take forthcoming single ‘Cheat on Me‘; it has all the usual ingredients with straining vocals and that certain melancholy distinctive to the band, but things are topped off by a simplistic Marr solo that forms the icing on the cake.

The Cribs sound was always something of a barrage of everything they could throw at you and the addition of another snarly guitar to fight with everything else feels absolutely natural. ‘Emasculate Me‘ shows the band at their finest, wonderfully disjointed and just precisely as messy as it needs to be, whilst ‘Hari Kari ‘is a gloriously tuneful stramash that lives long in the memory.

Anyone expecting a sudden explosion into best band in the world territory will be disappointed but album number four is an undoubted step forward that bears some fantastic tracks. Noting a steady progression might not seem terribly exciting but it’s testament to theirs talent that The Cribs keep moving forward and Ignore the Ignorant is certainly an album to get excited about.