Back in December, I wrote about a couple of my favorite brit-pop bands of 2007, but left off covering what might actually have been my favorite: The Fratellis. The trio from Glasgow are probably most famous for landing a track (“Flathead”) on one of those ubiquitous iPod commercials last spring. If you remember that one, you’ve got a good sense of the rest of their work.
Still, you’d be well-served to dig deep and explore their Costello Music with a speculative ear. They combine stomping guitars and hyper beats into the sort of solid garage rock that sounds incredibly simple but which absolutely trounces almost anything else in the genre you’re likely to hear. The tunes with the huge riffs and energetic beats are the main course, but there’s plenty else to provide some seasoning, from the “awww, shucks,” hands-in-pockets ditty “Whistle for the Choir” to the skap/punk pastiche of “Everybody Knows You Cried Last Night.”
I initially hesitated on The Fratellis, despite a lot of positive reviews. Constant references to a band as the heirs of The Libertines or The Stone Roses should have got me running out to buy it. But I kept trying to read between the lines, intuiting what seemed to be a sense that they were nothing more than a glorified covers band, aping their heroes and getting people temporarily excited without having any of the substance necessary to sustain interest.
I couldn’t have been more wrong. These songs sound delightfully fresh. People often mention glam when talking about The Fratellis, which honestly I don’t really sense. To me, it’s much more a simple youthful abandon, with none of the pretentiousness that I can’t help but attach to glam-rock.
In fact, even though it will be a major blow to my credibility I’m going to go ahead and say that even though Costello Music isn’t as good in an objective sense as some of its predecessors, I probably enjoy it more than anything from The Libertines. Make of that what you will…
Chelsea Dagger – The Fratellis