The Cribs - 24/7 Rock Star Shit

The Guardian 60

(Sonic Blew/Red Essential)

Originally begun as an EP during sessions for the Wakefield grunge-punk trio’s ambitious 2012 album In the Belly of the Brazen Bull, 24/7 Rock Star Shit has a more vintage Cribs spirit – the most aggressively raw they’ve sounded in years. Recorded live in just five days, this back-to-basics flipside to 2015’s poppy For All My Sisters has little to offer those not already positively disposed towards the Cribs’ basics – mordant lyrics, tetanus-jab guitars and raucous woah-ohh-ohh choruses – but the likes of Dendrophobia, with its haywire licks and raw scream of “we can’t afford each other”, and In Your Palace have an irresistible energy.