Here We Stand [CD]

It's been a good few weeks for British music with excellent releases from The Pigeon Detectives and The Zutons - can the Fratellis follow suit with their successor to Costello Music?

I heard their recent set on Jools Holland and pretty much loved every new track they performed. This is quite unusual for me because most albums really have to grow on me, but this was instant - so as you can imagine, I had pretty high hopes for this sophomore release.

The three opening tracks are absolutely stonking summer songs, and if A Heady Tale isn't released as a single then I'll eat my metaphorical hat. Look Out Sunshine sounds very 90s, very much like something the Supernaturals would create. Stragglers Moon is probably my least favourite track - luckily the fantastic Mistress Mabel is but a skip-button away. If you've not caught the single yet, do so!

The back straight isn't quite as fine as the first 6 tracks, but still very good nonetheless. Tell Me A Lie is a nice change in style, and sounds heavily influenced by The White Stripes, whilst Babydoll, Acid Jazz Singer & Lupe Brown are all annoyingly catchy tracks that you'll be singing along to in the car for weeks.

Overall, it's probably better than their debut album, the lyrics themselves certainly are. If the Fratellis continue to mature like this, things bode extremely well for album number three - hopefully it'll only be a year away.

The Fratellis are one of those Britpop bands exploding with energy and lovable roguishness, and that is basically what their debut album "Costello Music" was full of.

Which brings us to their sophomore offeering: "Here We Stand," an album of explosive laddish energy, late wild nights out on the town, and solid catchy riffs, just like their first one. The Glaswegians don't quite stick to a solid sound in this album, but diddle around with a few new styles and tempos -- there's shreds of alt-rock, blues-rock and hard-rock stuck in their Britpop.

They don't really add anything new to their sound -- it's all still bouncy guitar-laden Britpop -- but they diddle around with some other styles from time to time.

"Have you got a shape?" "Yes." "What shape would you be?"

With that odd little conversation, the band busts out into the rattling drums and rapidly blazing riffs of "My Brother John." It's a wild little song of "Saturday night in the year of the good thief," dumb blondes, wild night scenes, and "My friend John was a serious one/Buttoned up the back and a job half done/Lazy old boy when the good girls turn/His teeth get itchy and his rubber soles burn/When will he ever learn?"

They don't lose their momentum in "A Heady Tale," where the countryish guitars are tempered by a fierce, jangly piano and funny lyrics ("you know cold-blooded women make me sneeze"). And as the album winds on, they acquire a bit of a sunny alt-rock sound -- countryish ballads, breezy swaying rockers, fast-moving Britpop, and burning guitarpop. And they finish it off with the smooth, plaintive "Lupe Brown," and a wash of gentle piano that switches midsong into a smashing cascade of guitars.

But they do start to falter a little in the stompy, clumpy "Shameless" and the uneven, uncertain "Tell Me A Lie." Both songs seem to be a foray into harder rock'n'roll, but it feels like they overcrammed the songs with bass and electric riffs. They're far more successful with the more complex melody of "Acid Jazz Singer."

The core of the Fratellis' music has not really changed -- their songs are short, snappy and brimming with lots of pep, and lyrics about drinking, girls and the life of a band. "Here We Stand" is pretty clearly intended to be a fun, not terribly deep listen, and the Fratellis succeed magnificently in that corner -- although it lacks a cohesive sound all the way through. A little experiment here, a little influence there.

Guitars still dominate their music -- they make up most of the instrumentation, and keep everything catchy and nimble. Steely, acoustic, cycling, sharp dancy melodies and blazing electric riffs are spattered liberally all over the album, sometimes woven in with some bass. Solid drums back virtually everything, and occasionally they twine in some jangly piano and weird distortion.

And Jon Fratelli always sounds like a nice boy who's just gotten over a broken heart and a hangover -- his voice is strong but a little rough. And he sings songs that are cleverer and tighter than any previous Fratellis songs ("They got yesterday's heroes and last night clothes/You're a game old boy judging by the way you walk"). And they're full of worn-out acid jazz singers, "Mistress Mabel," and thieving gypsy women.

"Here We Are" is the sound of a band figuring out what they want to be when they grow up, and providing a little entertaining music along the way. Worth hearing, but hopefully leading on to something even better.

With 'Costello Music', The Fratellis gave us an album packed full of fast-paced, sing-a-long indie songs with a slightly hard edge and they've done exactly the same with 'Here We Stand', a high quality collection of instantly likable tunes. 'Costello Music' was always going to be a difficult album to top and, although 'Here We Stand' hasn't bettered their debut, it is certainly able to sit comfortably next to it, like a cheeky little brother.

This album is jam packed full of hard-edged riffs, witty lyrics and good-natured, big choruses. 'My Friend John', 'A Heady Tale' and 'Shameless' are three very catchy, brilliant songs and a great way to start the album; the first track featuring a guitar riff the Arctic Monkeys would be proud of, the second opening with a jaunty piano line - a real knees-up tune, while the last of the opening trio, 'Shameless', continues the theme of upbeat, immediately enjoyable songs.

'Look Out Sunshine!', the forthcoming single, is the 'Whistle For The Choir' of the album and if it isn't a huge summer hit (it is released in August), I would be extremely surprised. 'Straggler's Moon' is a little darker and slightly less immediate, but still a very good song with a quirky, snappy chorus, reminding me a little of Supergrass. The first single, 'Mistress Mabel', is a great tune and is up there with the quality of singles from their debut album.

Other highlights on the album include the charming, foot-tapping tunes 'Babydoll' and 'Acid Jazz Singer', the slow, heavy rock/breakneck-speed blues contrast of 'Tell Me A Lie' (possibly the heaviest thing they have done to date), 'Lupe Brown', which kicks-off with a celtic-like riff and the other two tracks on the album aren't half-bad either (the last track on the album 'Milk And Money' is especially interesting), giving the listener a good listening experience from the start to the very finish.

All-in-all, this is a very pleasing album and a worthy follow-up to their excellent debut. Perhaps it doesn't quite scale the heights of the very best moments of 'Costello Music', but it really isn't far behind. I would wager that people who enjoyed the first album would be much more likely to enjoy this release than not. A quality second album from the Glaswegians.