Bang Bang Rock & Roll [Bonus Tracks] (CD - 2005)

Recording information: Apollo Control; The Exchange.

Photographer: Joe Dilworth.

The songs on Art Brut's debut, BANG BANG ROCK & ROLL, sound like they were tossed off in ten minutes; of course, the band is the first to admit that fact, even reveling in it, and therein lies the record's appeal. Naïve, bratty, insouciant, and wild, Art Brut celebrate both the glory of rocking out and the disposable nature of the genre with tongues planted firmly in cheeks. The album's lead-off single, "Formed a Band," is a case in point, inviting listeners, with an air of faux amazement, to "look at us/ we formed a band," and the sludgy, riffalicious anthem "Modern Art" may be the lowest highbrow song ever written. In all, Art Brut manage to balance postmodern irony with something altogether genuine: the sheer human joy of making noise.

"Formed a Band" was such a brilliant first single, and summed up Art Brut's aesthetic so perfectly, that there almost seemed to be no need for more songs from them. Driven by a jagged, ragged guitar riff, it sounded like it was thrown together in ten minutes tops, and had lots of great, quotable lyrics ("I wanna be the boy -- the man -- who writes the song/That makes Israel and Palestine get along"), which were held together and topped off by Alfred Molina look-alike Eddie Argos' speak-singing -- which he informed his listeners wasn't irony, and wasn't rock & roll. Actually, it's both, and there's a lot more of both on Bang Bang Rock & Roll, an album whose title kills and celebrates rock & roll at the same time. "Formed a Band," which appears here in a slightly more polished version than the original Rough Trade single, is still Art Brut's calling card, but the album has plenty of nearly-as-great songs to choose from. Chief among them is "Emily Kane," a plea Argos wrote to find his lost teenage sweetheart. He doesn't just pine for her, though, he wants "school kids on buses singing [her] name." Truly brilliant in its sweet simplicity -- especially on the breakdown, where he lists, to the second, exactly how long it's been since he's seen Emily -- it's an incredibly vivid distillation of how large your first love looms in your memory. On the album's title track, Art Brut returns to "Formed a Band"-style, tongue-in-cheek meta-punk: while Argos snarls, "I can't stand the sound of the Velvet Underground!" the backing vocals chime in "White light! White heat!" and a John Cale-like violin screeches in the background. While all this irony could be suffocating, there's a pure, unadulterated joy underneath most of Art Brut's best songs that prevents their witty stance from becoming too clever-clever; the way Argos roars, "I've seen her naked twice!" about his new girlfriend on "Good Weekend" feels entirely genuine. Indeed, a lot of Art Brut's appeal lies in Argos' way with storytelling, whether he's singing about impotence ("Rusted Guns of Milan"), drinking Hennessey with Morrissey ("Moving to L.A."), or indulging his fascinations with Top of the Pops or Italy ("18,000 Lira"). Though it runs out of steam slightly (at least in comparison to the pop art brilliance of the band's best songs) on its second half, Bang Bang Rock & Roll is a terrific debut, and Art Brut is smart, catchy, and fun -- everything you could want in a band, even if they do sound like they formed ten minutes ago. [Nearly a year after its U.K. release, Bang Bang Rock & Roll was issued in the U.S. by Downtown Records, who packaged the album with three bonus tracks, "These Animal Menswe@r," "Really Bad Weekend," and "Maternity Ward," as a bonus for stateside fans.] ~ Heather Phares minimize