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The Fratellis
Costello Music
Universal Island
"Sitting on the back seat banging on the off beat/We know you love us and you probably do," sings The Fratellis’ Jon Fratelli. It’s hard not to. This Scottish trio’s debut album Costello Music bangs big on the off beat and in these thirteen numbers the band are boozy and belligerent, braggy and utterly charming. Not since Up The Bracket has an album torn from the gates with such self-belief. The opener "Henrietta" is a blazing pop song that welcomes the listener into the Fratellis' world ("These are crazy times down at Costello music"), "Whistle For The Choir" sounds like John Lennon singing scrappy through a Scottish brogue, and "For The Girl" perfectly depicts a romance with an age difference ("She was into the ‘Stones when I was into the ‘Roses"). There are nods to The Libertines ("Creepin Up The Backstairs"), a tip of the hat to The Clash ("The Gutterati?") and a punchy Arctic Monkeys-like number ("Everybody Knows You Cried Last Night") that could have slipped onto the band’s debut undetected. Elsewhere "Baby Fratelli" has one of the biggest sing-a-long choruses of the year and "Got Ma Nuts From A Hippy" is deliciously catchy. Recorded in Los Angeles with Tony Hoffer (Beck), Costello Music is an energetic blast of pop music the way that it should always be—young and brash and big and completely memorable.
—Alex Green
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