Don't crush the Fratellis

My older brother Dennis told me about this Glaswegian band The Fratellis last week. With a bandname like that you would expect some sweet powerpop, so I was rather surprised that this band fits well in the current stream of british poprock hype bands like Arctic Monkeys. Let me tell you this: when a band is hyped in the amount Arctic Monkeys is, I usually lose interest immediately. Must be some kind of internal mechanism...well, maybe I'm just a indie snob.

My first listen to their debut album Costello Music was in this cynical state of mind. Here I go. First song: not really my thing, but not bad...Second song: hmm, the intro starts of kind of arctic monkey-ish (and I know because I know probably 2 AM songs)...wait...40 seconds into this song they grab my attention with a "padapapadadada" singing harmony that just sounds...awesome! Now, I can't stop playing this song...but there's more to like on the album if you like a diverse mix of catchy energetic pop rock'n'roll songs. Not all songs are as good and special as Flathead though. Then again, the band only exists for about a year...

By the way, another aspect about this album is that you repeatedly will say to yourself: damn...this sounds a lot like [insert song] by [insert band], leaving you frustrated, because you can't come up with the band or tune the song sounds like. For instance, the song "Everybody Knows You Cried Tonight" sounds a lot like a Clash song and the song "For the Girl" surprisingly reminds me of a song by The Vandals (annoyingly catchy chorus, singing over guitar solo/riff).

The Fratellis - Flathead
The Fratellis - Everybody Knows You Cried Tonight
The Fratellis - For the Girl

The Fratellis on MySpace