Review: The Fratellis - Costello Music

I love a good garage band. Y'know, there's one right by my house, see. They don't play very well, they break out into a 5-second snippet of Crazy Train, forget the riff, break out into Iron Man, forget the words, and then they decide to play an acoustic version of some speed metal song. Oh, and the singer's terrible too; extremely emo girl who couldn't sing a note if her life depended on it, which wouldn't say much anyway. But this band is not The Fratellis, a band that seemed to come out of nowhere for me, seemed like another garage band to me. Memories of the emo girl's band filled my head. The beginning of 'Henrietta', however, seemed to blow the emo girl out of the water. I've never heard such amazing energy in a band. The drummer's constant use of the always-faithful 'crash snare kick' method puts a smile on my face. Their lack of extreme musical talent is complimented by incredible songwriting, showing that musical simplicity isn't always a bad thing, but can be if you're a bit too radio-friendly. Bits and pieces of Duncan Sheik's debut album are filling my mind so let's move on, shall we?
"Flathead"'s 'Ba da ba-ba da da da da' isn't the most incredible lyric ever, but it really is catchy! The best lyrics for me come from 'Chelsea Dagger', a song about a prostitute, from what I've gathered. Henrietta is an amazing song, the next four songs come pretty close. I'm glad that this album came out when it did; it's great to see that people still play instruments that don't sound like 8-bit instruments. Lyricwise, I liked 'Whistle For The Choir', one of the rare ballads that comes on 4 tracks into the albums, and it's well worth the wait. That song in particular showcases the brilliance of the 'three lonely boys'. I look forward to a sophomore album!
FINAL VERDICT: The Fratellis's debut peaked at No. 2 on the UK Billboard Charts, second to the incredibly talented singer-songwriter speed-metal virtuoso prodigy Justin Timberlake, which is clearly not a feat to be ashamed of. Fortunately, the music is far better than Mr. Timberlake's sophomore album, and this is coming from an extreme Timberlake fan. This debut is one that rivals those of Oasis and The La's, where songwriting clearly comes before musicianship. I'm looking forward to the American release of the album so good music can once again rule the Long Island airwaves. Someday, my friends, we will live in a pop-free world where Dragonforce isn't considered metal and Ciara is not considered hip-hop. We will just have to wait for that day, and while we're waiting, we might as well play The Fratellis, remembering those crazy times we had at Costello Music.

Rating: 8.7
Judgement: Buy Album


Copied from my Ultimate Gutar account and touched up so I didn't sound so stupid. :)