The Cribs are celebrating the tenth anniversary of third album ‘Men’s Needs, Women’s Needs, Whatever’ by playing the record in its entirety during a run of UK headline dates this summer, culminating with a hometown show at Leeds Arena - and they’ve a few surprises in store...
Words: Jessica Goodman.
Looking back on music in 2007, it feels almost like another world. Mika signed to Universal and was about to kickstart a high-pitched pop revolution. Avril Lavigne had just released her smash hit single ‘Girlfriend’. A Spice Girls reunion was actually happening. It was also the year Radiohead released ‘In Rainbows’ on a pay-what-you-want scheme, as well as the year Arctic Monkeys put out their storming second record ‘Favourite Worst Nightmare’. And, of course, it was a year that underground sensations won out, as The Cribs released their seminal album ‘Men’s Needs, Women’s Needs, Whatever’.
“The scene in the UK was so amped up – it really was a pressure cooker,” Gary Jarman states. “A band would start, get a buzz, get signed to a major label, and be on the radio within a few months. It was crazy.” With two albums already under their collective belt, as well as a series of charting singles, The Cribs were forging out their own path, and no matter how long it took them they were determined to see it through. “We always used to get told we were ‘too lo-fi’,” Gary groans. “The major labels were snapping up any band who looked cool, or any band who had a buzz. We were really reacting against that.” An expression of rebellion, ‘Men’s Needs…’ was also the record that propelled The Cribs from being homespun heroes to becoming the nation’s sweethearts. A storming criticism of the culture it was released into, the album is as ticked off as it is switched on. It’s the sound of a band who know their voice and demand it be heard. Earnest, heart-on-sleeve emotion meets storming pop riffs in a series of twelve songs that spoke out for the discontent in everyone.
A decade on, it’s an album that still rings with as much resonance today as it did the first time you heard it. “When you’re making a record you always hope that people will still care about the record,” Gary admits. “You hope that it will be something that resonates with people. But looking this far down the road?” Now, as they take the album on tour across the UK, with dates already sold out across the country, the admiration is as keenly felt today as it ever has been.
