SATAN LOSES HARD

OK, I was having this conversation with a pal the other night about choosing albums for this thing that we’re doing (actually it’s at The Watusi on the 28th May so keep that date free ‘cause it’s going to rule) and Art Brut came up because they’ve just released an album. The conversation was centered around whether or not Art Brut’s perfect balance of irony, blasphemy and downright self-deprecation in the most hilarious piss-take English fashion could actually hold down as musically viable through more than one album. I loved Bang Bang Rock ‘n Roll, it was actually the funniest album (read: I like black humour) I had ever listened to while also being steeped in some post punkiness that seemed akin to the Franz Ferdinand’s and Maximo Park’s of the time except lead singer Eddie Argos really didn’t give a shit about the haircut and the art-appropriate video-clip like they did (even though the band met at art school and so ‘get it’). Having listened to Art Brut v Satan the conclusion is that, after their sophomore album It’s a bit Complicated, their one-trick pony is three tricks deep and showing no signs of quitting. YAY.I’m listening to track ‘What a Rush’ right now and there’s a couple of lines I think you should hear; ‘I’m trying to leave without waking you/But I can’t leave without my shoes/I can’t believe those things we did/Especially now we’re soberi-sh’ hollered in a cockney accent over the top of harmonizing band and driving guitar – casual as, like Argos was describing an embarrassing moment to his best friend the morning after. And this song is followed by one called ‘Demons Out’ stating ‘I wanted rock and roll/I got a science museum’ which is an obvious nod to the front man’s aforementioned refusal to be a contributing member of those post-punk, math rock protégées even though Art Brut are members of that club, musically if not morally.

Because they really don't care, and are RUTHLESSLY HARSH about people that do. There’s a song on this album called ‘The Replacements’ and it’s all about how he can’t believe he’s never heard of The Replacements before with the line ‘I can’t believe I’ve just found a band that won’t let me down’ in his perfectly drum-timed spoken word vocal.

And then it all ends like it started. ‘Mysterious Bruises’ is Argos’ nod to discovering what he did (‘I fought the floor and the floor won’) the night he also probably wrote ‘Alcoholic’s Unanimous’ about. Wrapped up in an appropriately debaucherous seven and a half minutes of noise rock, Art Brut v Satan is an album about your life and my life, and definitely the life of every band who pretend to read books and visit libraries all day long – just don’t try to tell them that.