Album Review: The Cribs – For All My Sisters
For All My Sisters
Released 23rd March 2015
Words: Lauren Grigor
Let me start off by saying I am in love with this album, I started writing this as a brief overview but couldn’t help but talk about it track-by-track.
For All My Sisters, the 6th album from The Cribs is a tight cohesive piece of work that is undoubtedly “The Cribs”. It is full of punk-pop, nostalgia and angsty lyrics. But what I’ve found is that the album is a lot more approachable, you could make this the first album from the Jarman Brothers that you’ve ever heard and you would feel like you’ve been a fan for years. Singles An Ivory Hand and Burning for No One are incredibly strong and have left me wanting more since they were released.
The first track Finally Free, throws us straight away unwillingly into uncomfortable augmented intervals for a few bars before reverting back to familiar Cribs riffs – phew. This leads us into a beautiful chorus; vocals and guitar in perpetual motion back and forth. It’s a strong start, considering fans have been treated to 3 solid singles, I can already see myself singing this back to The Cribs at festivals to come. Different Angle feels oh so 60s indie-california-surf-punk-pop-rock (what a recipe) and gets into the gritty-angst filled lyrics that we’re going to be treated to for the rest of the record. Themes of feeling misunderstood, unaccepted and like we’ll never fit it, then musically moving into a bridge that showcases every element of the band’s talents.
Burning For No One… this song makes me salivate, it’s that good. Okay. not exactly but it is my favourite on the album. It revolves around an odd obsessive voyeuristic unrequited infatuation. How utterly relatable for these days of modern dating culture.
Mr. Wrong has a bitter sweet sentiment that as described by Ryan Jarman himself, “It’s just about being the wrong person for someone. And that doesn’t necessarily make either one a bad person – just not right”
After listening to the album, I couldn’t agree more with the choice to have An Ivory Hand as the first single. It’s a noisy and relentlessly energetic track with non-stop rolling guitar and really pretty vocal melodies, like Spring on Broadway with it’s great ballad style chorus, heaps of minor chords and harmonies.
Simple Story is one that has definitely grown on me, non-stop, sweet lyrics that are just – simple.
City Storm and Diamond Girl get back to the old-school Cribs feelings with more literal lyrics (revolving around anti-establishment and unconventional romantic experiences) and the punky angst feel, a little less creatively vocally but still an important piece of the whole puzzle.
I love the way Pacific Time starts, with lots of instrumental vocal harmonies, you’re invested in the song before you even know what it’s about. And it truly is lovely, it’s not overly ambitious or pretentious and has the perfect build up into the emotional vocal push.
Summer of Chances is the anthem for missed opportunities, and it sounds like a total belter, no doubt if this is played live, we the audience will have to help them out with this one.
After the absolute enveloping noisy masterpiece that the For All My Sisters album has become, Pink Snow with its cruisy muted guitar and building tempo brings the whole album together. Is it bad that I want it to go longer than the 7 minutes and 12 seconds? It has become one of my favourite songs and is quite the finale, featuring the lyrics and Album title For all my Sisters, this song is dedicated to Ryan (Jarman)’s female relationships he has formed during his time in the band. It’s sincere and compassionate.
Watch the video for Burning For No One here:
Listen to Different Angle here:
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