If there was ever a record that didn't need a follow-up, it was this one; Art Brut's insanely arch, ironic first album is almost entirely self-contained, featuring an opening track about forming a band and a track near the end about breaking one up. This is probably the most meta rock album ever made, it's about nothing else than rock music itself. Most reviews of Art Brut degenerate into a quote-fest of the album's most memorable lines, and indeed it's full of them. The music itself is a bunch of energetic punk that's been ripped off a million times before and undoubtedly will be reused a hundred times after; it's hardly Art Brut's fault that the guitar riffs they're using have come from the minds of others. It even seems appropriate, given the album's subject matter. Picking a "favorite song" is an exercise in futility since it's all of a piece, but I have a soft spot for "Modern Art", basically because it cracks me up the most consistently ("Modern art...makes me...want to...ROCK OUT!!!" is undoubtedly one of the most kickass moments in rock music this decade). Critical opinion on this album has kind of soured since it came out five years ago, probably because the whole thing's a sort of shallow joke. But that doesn't mean it isn't entertaining. It's short, it's catchy, it's funny, and for these guys, that's enough.
MY RATING:
7.5
Art Brut - "Modern Art"
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