Cribs : 'Ignore The Ignorant'
Released: 7th September 2009
Label: Wichita Recordings
The Cribs are now refined, with the addition of rock-star’s best-friend Johnny Marr. Johnny continues to find a good thing, and inject a slight Marrism. You can imagine the Cribs meeting went along the same lines as the Marr/McCulloch tryst for Echo and The Bunnymen back in 1993, when Marr tried to rejuvenate Ian McCulloch’s creative desires, supporting him in the right direction.
Marr is a great supporter. He doesn’t overwhelm with his musical input, his idiosyncratic jangly finger picking only directing his friends and never swerving from the original blueprint. With the Cribs, Marr has cemented the best rock pop act of past years into our consciousness, and we can reap the rewards of enjoying their punk hints. For pop’s sake, they’re good.
The Cribs’ self-titled first album was a brilliant sample of lo-fi, deconstructed pop and an immediate New Musical Express dancefloor hit – with tracks such as 'Another Number', 'Learning How To Fight' and 'You Were Always The One'. They forged a link between oddball indie obscurities and created something accessible. In the way that Marr waited around the Rough Trade offices to hand them The Smiths first demo, The Cribs promptly recorded this first album in a week and were signed to Wichita. The Cribs share the same ethic of sellable but antagonistic, unusual music that The Smiths had, and thus, bloom.
The connection with Alex Kapranos for the third album crept them closer to the mainstream indie that they were so contemptuous of, and now Ignore The Ignorant defines their imminent success – but retaining the contemptuous, arrogant glare of youth.
The Cribs are mellowed with the experience of this fourth album. It’s clean and refined, but there still remains the original ferocity and regional screams of the Jarmans. Within Weapons Of Mass Production:
“I was brought up with my own beliefs and well, I prided myself on being free but the powers that be invaded, looking for some weapons of mass production”
they continue on the self-destructive path of Our Bovine Public. In Bovine, Jarman shrieked, “you’ll never exist without being generic, you’ll have to impress our bovine public” and now he lies shirking at populism - climbing the charts.
Again, this album is a personal protest, a sharp call to arms on mainstream symbols. 'We Were Aborted' hits out at Nuts magazine and 'Stick To Yr Guns', is well, about sticking to your guns. Ignore The Ignorant is good pop music with fantastic, fuck you intentions and The Cribs never sell out.
Words: Alice White
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