Robert Christgau: Dean of American Rock Critics

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Art Brut

  • Bang Bang Rock & Roll [Banana Recordings/Fierce Panda, 2005] A-
  • Bang Bang Rock & Roll [Downtown, 2006] Choice Cuts
  • It's a Bit Complicated [Downtown, 2007] **
  • Art Brut vs. Satan [Downtown, 2009] A-
  • Brilliant! Tragic! [The End/Cooking Vinyl, 2011] **

Consumer Guide Reviews:

Bang Bang Rock & Roll [Banana Recordings/Fierce Panda, 2005]
Although this crudely hooky three-chord guitar band are working on a concept EP about a Red Brigade spinoff, their debut album is the kind that brooks no follow-up. Beginning with "Formed a Band" ("Dye your hair black/Never look back"), it really should end with "Stand Down" ("Some of us want to go back to our families") rather than the one about the 18,000-lira bank robbery. Young love, impotence, older love, charging head down at a stray Matisse, and being bored with the Velvet Underground: this is the stuff of one-shot art-punk. Mike Skinner, meet Eddie Argos--the perfect collaborator, and he'll be looking for work. A-

Bang Bang Rock & Roll [Downtown, 2006]
"These Animal Menswe@r" Choice Cuts

It's a Bit Complicated [Downtown, 2007]
Kept a band going, they kept a band going ("People in Love," "Jealous Guy"). **

Art Brut vs. Satan [Downtown, 2009]
Remember how "Formed a Band" seemed so conceptual--a joke about an idea for a song? Eddie Argos claims it was autobiographical--claims that Art Brut's entire debut album, created when he was 25, was based on his 17-year-old self. Two years later, he goes on, the more forced-seeming It's a Bit Complicated was based on him at 19, when he must have been pretty dumb around girls. At 29, he doesn't leave himself that out: "DC comics and chocolate milkshake/Even though I'm 28" rhymes with "I guess I'm just developing late." True, the waiter or delivery man who supposedly sings that song has lacked Argos's career opportunities. But surely it's Argos-the-artist, meaning the man himself, doing a number on U2 in the studio notes "Slap Dash for No Cash"--"I love the sound of background noise/I want to hear the crack in the singer's voice"--or denying record buyers the vote in "Demons Out!" How many great songs about rock and roll can one man write before he gets tiresome? We may find out. A-

Brilliant! Tragic! [The End/Cooking Vinyl, 2011]
Guitarist often shines, lyrics often don't ("Clever Clever Jazz," "Bad Comedian") **

See Also