Art Brut

Add Date: May 24 

Artist: Art Brut 

Album: Brilliant! Tragic! 

Label: Cooking Vinyl 

Genre: Rock 

Comments: Art Brut frontman Eddie Argos has made a name for himself for his clever--if not downright hilarious--lyrics, delivered in semi-spoken word style. So while it's admittedly a gamble to try to change things up, Argos has decided to test out his singing voice on Brilliant! Tragic! Perhaps unsurprisingly, the results are mixed, and some of the strongest tracks on this record are the ones in which he's being the old Eddie Argos, like "Clever Clever Jazz" and "Bad Comedian", which features these classic Art Brut couplets:

You're walking around like love's young dream
He dresses like he came free with the NME
How can you bear to hold his hand

I bet he signs his name in Comic Sans

So the sense of humor isn't impacted by the change in direction, and it's always worth nothing that behind Argos' antics lies a really good guitar-rock band. And it certainly doesn't hurt to have Black Francis back in the fold, after the Pixies legend produced the band's 2009 LP Art Brut vs. Satan. Start with tracks 2, 3, 1 and 5.