In this day and age, when home recording equipment can produce pretty professional results for relatively little money, sub-demo-quality, Toerag studios-produced records like this are something of a peculiarity. In these post-post-punk times, recorded-in-a-shed production is no longer a statement of rebellion and yet neither is it any longer an act of necessity. What it is - and this is the real reason for the popularity of Toerag - is a perfectly valid aesthetic choice for people making a kind of music where any hint of such a thing as production values would just be, you know, inappropriate.

The Cribs are a pop band and this debut album contains twelve short, to-the-point pop songs; fuzz-blunted for sure but still sharp enough to give yourself a nasty cut. The similarities of a lot of these tunes (in particular "Things You Should Be Knowing") to The Libertines and The Strokes are so blatant as to be barely worth acknowledging and there are certainly no points on offer for pointing them out. The record simply stands before you, stark, bollock naked, bereft of sheen, bereft of even the vaguest pretensions of originality, and screams "Here I am! Judge me on my tunes or be damned!"

And you know, mostly they're really good. Better than most of the chasing Brit-pack, better than The Von Bondies, better than they have any right to be. The components are as basic as hell but the structure and the arrangements of songs like "Direction" surpass their restrictions with honours and six gold stars. This is definitely not for everyone and they're probably much better live but until Summer Sonic 2004 this album will do nicely. -Ian Martin, Apr.25.04

The Cribs