The Fat Angel Sings

All Art Brut’s frontman Eddie Argos wants is to reassure you. He wants you to know that no matter how bleak things look, no matter how bereft your life appears, whether you’ve been through a bad break-up or you’re on bedrest, everything’s going to be alright. He even says so on “Hooray!”, the opening song from the band’s first album in seven years, Wham! Bang! Pow! Let’s Rock Out!, a title that promises nothing but pure, unadulterated good times and delivers on that promise. “Everything’s gonna be alright!” Argos hollers over the crack of Charlie Layton’s snare drum, the buzz of Toby MacFarlaine’s and Ian Catskilkin’s guitars, the thick hum of Freddy Feedback’s bass. If Wham! Bang! Pow! Let’s Rock Out! is a ramble, it’s an infectious ramble, too much fun not to rock out to; you’ll pick out bits and pieces of The Mr. T Experience, Descendents and Ted Leo in the record’s texture, but then again, you may be too busy bobbing your head along to care about such paltry things as influence. The very title is a goddamn invitation. Don’t hold Art Brut’s joie de vivre against them; we need it as much as they live it.