LP Review: Art Brut - Wham! Bang! Pow! Let's Rock Out (English)

Remember Art Brut? There was the time when Indie Rock Artists such as The Arctic Monkeys, The Babyshambles, The Kooks, and many more experienced their big hype. It was the time when Mando Diao hat their first big hit with "Down in the Past", and did not publish acoustic versions, yet. In this very era it was Art Brut shone out for me especially. Their easygoing ways, steady tempo, and lean styles from bands such as The Clash, 999 or UK Subs were some of the causes why the quintet from London caught me, and convinced me more than any other Indie Rock band.

It has been fourteen years since my favourite single of those days called "My Little Brother", and five years since their last album "Top of the Pops", and now the sixth longplayer "Wham! Bang! Pow! Let's Rock Out!" is lying on my turntable. And here's the first good news: it's still Art Brut! They still play high-tempo Indie Rock with partly spoken and party sung lyrics. Another beuatiful thing was the shipping which contained the LP, a shirt, a mug, a poster, and for some reason a double CD of AC/DC's concert in Detroit, 1990.

"Wham! Bang! Pow! Let's Rock Out!" was released via the label Alcopop and comes with a dozen of tracks. Art Brut dance their way through the record in their very own way with Rock and Punk rhythms, dark humour, catchy hooks and some tooters here and there. It's impossible not to dance to that record! The clean guitar sounds is still uncommonly rough for Indie Rock and Eddie Argos' voice is still unique. Therefore, it is still given and underlined why Art Brut are exceptonal within their genre.

In their lyrics Art Brut satirize everyone and everything. For instance the track "Kultfigur" deals with all those bands with a little too much of self-esteem who see themselves as the next cult figures. The song "Hospital!" contains the great line "They tried to make me go to rehab; and I said: That's probably a very good idea!" with a nice little potshot towards Amy Winehouse's "Going back to rehab". One of my personal favourites on "Wham! Bang! Pow! Let's Rock Out!" is the title "Good Morning Berlin". Not only do the smoovely gorgeous riffs in the verse convince me; also the chorus "Kannst du bitte die Luft aus dem Glas lassen?" thundertruck me and made me really happy.

With "Schwarzfahrer" and "Kultfigur" they added two German titles to the LP. For those of you who also love the inexorable party crashers Art Brut, the title track "Wham! Bang! Pow! Let's Rock Out!" will definitely fit your expectations. "We'll make some enemies in the kitchen, 'cause we don't care whose booze we're drinking". Nuff said; that's that Punk Rock Attitude which makes Art Brut an exceptional Indie Rock Band, and which made me a believer.

After listening to the record for several times I am positive that "I don't wanna go home, yet!". Art Brut are still uncompromising, fast, rousing, musical, and humourous. The qunitet from London somehow reinvented themselves. Yet they still deliver what is to be expected when getting a record that says "Art Brut" on its cover. Uptempo rhythms, straight announcements, some winds here and there, and that straight evil, dirty and dark side of Indie Rock.