Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Our Bovine Public
2. Girls Like Mystery
3. Men's Needs
4. Moving Pictures
5. I'm A Realist
6. Major's Titling Victory
7. Women's Needs
8. I've Tried Everything
9. My Life Flashed Before My Eyes
10. Be Safe
11. Ancient History
12. Shoot The Poets

Disc 2:

1. Our Bovine Public
2. Girls Like Mystery
3. Men's Needs
4. Moving Pictures
5. I'm A Realist
6. Major's Titling Victory
7. Women's Needs
8. I've Tried Everything
9. My Life Flashed Before My Eyes
10. Be Safe
11. Ancient History
12. Shoot The Poets

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1377 in Music
• Released on: 2007-05-21
• Number of discs: 1

CD Description
Third album from Wakefield's finest exports, The Cribs. A more polished effort than their previous two albums, but if anything the production work from Franz Ferdinand's Alex Kapranos only serves to highlight the songwriting abilities of the band. Includes the singles 'Men's Needs', 'Moving Pictures' and 'Our Bovine Public'.

Customer Reviews

Fans' Needs!
It is always rather worrying when a band which embraces its shambolic side has a bit of money thrown its way. This album is somewhat more polished than previous efforts and the singer sounds, in places, as if he's been replaced by his younger and more talented brother. While both of these things can be seen as bad points, and perhaps even selling out, the answer to the big question is a definite "no". They haven't sold their collective soul to the man - the spirit of the Cribs lives on. One listen to "Our Bovine Public" tells you this much. There is a nod to the Stone Roses' "I Wanna Be Adored" in the bassline for "Women's Needs" and "Be Safe" is probably the biggest task the band has ever undertaken (at 6 minutes, it's certainly the longest song in their back catalogue) but it works magnificently. Just when you are wondering where the spoken vocal is going, in comes the anthemic chorus we have come to expect from this band. All in all, this is a triumph - at a point in their career when so many bands choose the straight and narrow, The Cribs have kept themselves off the rails and the world is a much better place for it. 8/10.

Cribs best so far
Following up `The new Fellas' was always going to be a difficult job for the Cribs, so I approached this album with anticipation but didn't get my hopes too high.
The fact that they have bettered an album that was one of the best in 2005 is some achievement - the production may still not be all there, but I think that adds to their charm, and the tunes themselves certainly stand up against anything else out there at the moment.

Tracks one to five stand out the most, the single `Men's needs' being the highlight and the standard rarely drops, perhaps one or two of the latter tracks are a bit throwaway but as a whole it's a really enjoyable experience. In fact my favourite track is probably `Be safe', it's very different from most of their other songs and the poem being read throughout is a work of genius.

If you like either of the previous offerings from the Cribs then you won't be disappointed, I certainly think with their last two albums they are proving to be one of the best British bands around.

Catchy but harsh on the ears!
I wouldn't normally talk about the actual sound quality of an album, but this just needs to be said on this occasion. The production on this album is horrible, it sounds amateur. Which is not to take anything away from the songs, the songs are great, they're a lesson in how you can make something catchy and intricate with just 3 instruments and a vocal. Where so many 3 piece bands would just strum away at chords, The Cribs include some wonderful counter-melodies on the guitar that work around the vocals, but the guitars are so harsh sounding that it wears you down after a while.

I guess the lesson here is that sometimes it really is worth getting in an experienced producer rather than a lead singer from another famous band. I think the predominant attitude with this record was 'let's make this sound as loud as we possibly can on the cd'. Unfortunately, it's not as simple as that, because if you go too loud the sound quality is compromised. Someone should tell The Cribs that we all have volume controls anyway, there's no need to compress the life out of the music just to make it louder, we can always turn it up ourselves if we want to!

Maybe you're not fussed about sound quality, which is fine, in that case I recommend the album because some of the songs are brilliant. But for me it does matter when it gets this bad, this is the only CD I own which I don't listen to very often purely because it sounds like it was recorded by schoolboys.