Loaded Album of the week
By Fred Spanner
The Cribs: Selling A Vibe ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
The Cribs are back, and no, they haven’t gone soft; they’ve just got sharper elbows and better stories. Selling A Vibe is what happens when a band that’s survived indie hype cycles, lineup changes and the slow death of guitar music decides it’s got nothing left to prove. And crucially, nothing left to fake.
This is their ninth album, which in rock terms should mean autopilot, beige cardigans and “mature songwriting”. Thankfully, the Jarman brothers choose violence instead, or at least a wiry, caffeinated kind of menace that still smells faintly of sweat, rehearsal rooms and late-night takeaways.
Sonically, Selling A Vibe widens the lens without losing the snarl. The guitars still slash and scrape, but there’s space now, and melody sneaks in where distortion used to live, and the songs actually breathe. It’s indie rock grown up without becoming smug about it.
Lead track “Dark Luck” kicks the door in early, reminding everyone why The Cribs mattered in the first place: lean riffs, punch-up rhythms, and lyrics that feel half-confessional, half-threat. “Summer Seizures” dials things down just enough to show they can do wistful without disappearing up their own arses.
Lyrically, this is a more reflective Cribs. There’s less bile, more bruises. Songs like “A Point Too Hard To Make” and “If Our Paths Never Crossed” wrestle with connection, missed chances, and the weird emotional hangovers that come with sticking around long enough to look back. It’s honest without being self-pitying.
And then there’s “Brothers Won’t Break”, which does exactly what it says on the tin. No irony, no winking. Just three brothers acknowledging that, against the odds, they’re still here. It shouldn’t work. It absolutely does.
Selling A Vibe doesn’t try to reinvent The Cribs, and that’s the point. This is a band doubling down on who they are with their rough edges intact, ego in check, songs doing the heavy lifting. In an era where “indie” often means “algorithm-friendly wallpaper”, The Cribs sound gloriously human.
The perfect start to the year.