Posts tagged Art Brut

Art Brut are one of those rare bands where I’ll actually go out of my way to pick up every single that they put out. There’s a reason for that: their b-sides are so good that it makes the process worthwhile. While inevitably the best material ended up on the album, there’s a little treasure chest of more obscure Art Brut songs that are also worthy of your time. Seeing as I’m all about spreading the joy, I now present to you a complete set of Art Brut b-sides, taken from their single releases for the album ‘Bang Bang Rock ‘n’ Roll’.

(from Modern Art / My Little Brother)
MP3 Art Brut – These Animal Menswe@r (expired)
Seeing as this was a double a-side, there was only one new song to be found, but thankfully it’s a good one. ‘These Animal Menswe@r’ has become a live staple for the band, and it’s easy to see why. It’s brash, shouty, and easy to sing along to, all great qualities for a song being played live. We’ll ignore the fact it’s largely non-sensical as that pretty much adds to it’s charm. I’m sure I could sit here and analyse the words and find some deeper meaning about how it’s all about Eddie Argos or whatever, but that really isn’t necessary. It’s fun enough to rock along to it.

(from Emily Kane)
MP3 Art Brut – About Time (expired)
MP3 Art Brut – Maternity Ward (expired)
“There was a time when I couldn’t stomach Morrissey / I thought he can’t have had a harder life than me” opens ‘About Time’, introducing us to a slightly darker, more reflective side of Art Brut. Both of these songs are something of a departure for them, representing a shift to a more downbeat and, dare I say it, more mature sound. ‘Maternity Ward’ has a late 90s Blur kind of sound to it, but happily isn’t anywhere near as depressing, with its repeated chorus of “Everything is gonna be alright”. Maybe this is the song they were singing about in ‘Formed A Band’ when they promised to write a song that would let everyone know that it was going to be ok.

(from Good Weekend)
MP3 Art Brut – Really Bad Weekend (expired)
MP3 Art Brut – Home Altars Of Mexico (expired)
‘Really Bad Weekend’ is another in the Weekend series, and although not as good as the ‘Good’ and ‘Bad’ ones that made it onto the album, it’s still a great song. Covering the cheerful ground of Eddie seemingly having an affair behind the back of his girlfriend, but with a unique position: he feels really, really bad about it. ‘Home Altars Of Mexico’ is a simple song about looking at souvenirs of a past relationship which causes pain yet being unable to let go of them. It’s probably the most simple song here, with hardly any instrumentation to it at all, which works very much in it’s favour.

MP3 Art Brut – Blame It On The Trains (expired) (unreleased)
This isn’t actually a b-side, but it’s one of their better unreleased songs, so I thought I’d throw it up here with the others. I’m actually not sure what the situation with this one is. There was talk of it being the first single from the second album, but that was months ago and nothing has been heard since. This also isn’t the full studio version, this is from a radio session for 6Music sometime last year, which is why the sound isn’t as crisp as it should be. As songs go though, it’s one of the better Brut songs, a fun little tale about being late for meeting people while he has “30 minutes” with his girlfriend, declaring that it’s ok because he can just “blame it on the trains”. Best of all, he feels entirely justified in this because of how many times the trains have really made him late in the past. Which, as anyone who has ever had the joy of travelling on the British railways will know, is a very good point.

More about Art Brut on their website here and their Myspace here.