The Cribs - Selling A Vibe

The Cribs are their generation’s great indie rock band of brothers, but have they ever sounded quite as fraternal as they do here, on their eighth record? It’s difficult to believe that the Jarmans - singing twins Gary and Ryan on bass and guitar respectively, Ross on drums - could possibly have had some thorny personal territory to navigate between them this time around. After all, the tightness of their bond has always been at the heart of the band, and they seemed closer than on ever on 2020’s ‘Night Network’, the album that cemented their status as indie survivors after years of Kafkaesque legal battles.

This time, though, after two decades of presenting a united front against posers and industry bullshit, they’ve looked inwards in order to reflect upon the ties that bind the three of them. Musically speaking, perhaps The Cribs’ greatest achievement in recent years has been to not just emerge the other side of a rough-and-ready noughties indie scene, but to do so with elegance and refinement, leaning away from the punky chaos of old in favour of melody and romanticism on ‘For All My Sisters’ and ‘Night Network’.

While ‘Selling a Vibe’ continues in that vein - especially on the gorgeous, self-excoriating ‘Looking for the Wrong Guy’ and the hazy, pretty ‘Distractions’ - there’s also some of the boisterousness of old here, with ‘A Point Too Hard to Make’ and ‘I’ll Tell You Anything’ destined for raucous singalong status. The record - which benefits from an open-minded choice of producer in Chairlift’s Patrick Wimberly - concludes with the soaring ‘Brothers Won’t Break’, a heart-warming reaffirmation of the Jarman union - and a roar of assurance to the Cribs faithful that they remain one of the most irrepressibly vital bands in Britain.