Johnny Marr leaves The Cribs

So news came in yesterday that Johnny Marr has left The Cribs after four years, while the Jarman brothers admitted that new album sessions “weren’t really working.” In a statement on their site the band said they “don’t want it to be seen as a split” but admitted they were “burnt out”.

As a long-term fan, I’m rather relieved that Johnny Marr has departed to make a solo record. What he bought to the band was exactly the sort of thing The Cribs always opposed: a legitimacy in the rock world. Having the legendary axe-man join the Brothers Jarman changed them from spiky and angsty to grown-up and rather bland.

When the collaboration was first announced I was skeptical. There was always something so pure about the The Cribs' group dynamic. It was minimalist and fuelled by Ryan and Gary’s sibling telepathy which radiated through their records and on stage. Every show was ramshackle and potentially riotous. They had songs that could rip the sky open with their beating hearts and massive choruses. Which made a Cribs show thrilling and, to quote the band themselves, "a right laff".

Marr is and was undeniably a legend. But when he joined The Cribs he bought with him years of experience but also the baggage of being identified with the rock canyon. The Cribs' non-traditionalist punk ethic was suddenly married to Marr's traditionalism. Could that work? The answer was, in short, no.

My doubts were confirmed when I saw the newly augmented four piece at TCOTU’s Heaven in 2009. The new songs from ‘Ignore The Ignorant’ sounded sedate and sensible. The lashings of lyrical wit and cynicism that I’d come to love and expect were absent. Gone was the telepathy, the rough edges, the piss and vinegar attitude and in its place was a new formality. There was the feeling that the band were behaving themselves when Marr was around, pulling themselves into traditional shapes that didn’t fit well.

Had their reverential awe stopped The Cribs being The Cribs? It seemed that way.

So thank goodness that the band are once again re-connecting with their original spirit. As part of the statement they wrote: “we are really honestly loving being back together as just 3 brothers literally playing in the basement/garage again.” Which is the best Cribs news we’ve heard in a while.

www.nme.com/blog/index.php?blog=146&p=10089&title=why_the_cribs_are_better_off_without_joh_1&more=1&c=1

So, so, so, so, so IN

Suck it up mugs.

They're dead to me now, you're dead to me now and I'm gonna kill that reviewer too. All dead.

I thought you liked the last Cribs record? I remember you giving it a very high review.

Ah, nevermind karl I thought you were talking about the last cribs album and not the single (which Dan was talking about)

Ignore The Ignorant is IMO their best record, by far... bit disappointed by this news...


Also I think he worked well in the live setting, saw them twice before Marr and one with him and that last one was the better one..

yay, yay and thrice yay!

That is so spot on it hurts, where as the Cribs had always been a kink in the clock, Marr seemed to sand down the serated edges and turned the kink into a finely rounded cog in the preverbial machine.

The thing is, the last album was really not that big a departure from Mans Needs. I understand what people are saying when comparing it to the first two Cribs records which are great but poorly produced. However, Mans Needs has that big commercial indie sound that Ignore had, it's not as if Johnny made that much of a difference in the studio as they'd already made that change themselves.

There is a difference between New Fella's & Mans Needs of course, but the jump from Mens Needs to ITI is a lot more pronounced, there are too many guitars on it and when you have layers of guitars you have to drench some of them out with reverb or whatever which then blends the mix, to me that was the difference, on the first three albums you had Ryan playing these spikey (fitting term that already used..) guitar parts and the bass was playing the rhythm underneath, with Marr in the fray he was just layering too much guitar underneath because that's what he does and you know, its fine for a lot of bands but that's not what the Cribs do well I don't think,

Avoiding the indie shit facts and sticking to the music, I'd use that argument to explain why I love ITI.

Welcome to the in crowd

For All My Sisters has been a surprise for me this year, wasnae expecting it to be bad or anything like that, just that after a few months of it I reckon its probably my favourite Cribs album.

Simple Story disrupts the momentum of it a bit, but so so many great tunes on there.

I was so disappointed on my first listen to it. The opening song is boring as hell, I mean look at their openers on their other albums - The Watch Trick, Hey Scenesters, Our Bovine Public, We Were Aborted, Glitters Like Gold <<< All of them absolute stonkers.

But i've gradually warmed to the album and now actually like it, hard to say where it ranks among their discography, probably right at the bottom. But hey, it's the fucking cribs so there's no shame in that.

Meh

don't see this getting xmas no1.

Boys,

I turned on Ignore The Ignorant yesterday and I was trying to remember what year it came out. I was thinking this has to be from 2012-2013 - THIS ALBUM IS FROM 2009. ALMOST 14 years old. SWEEET FUCK.

BTW, this is a great album. Love Marr's playing on it.

Hi Steve. Room on Fire is 20 years old this year.

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