Art Brut
“IT’S A BIT COMPLICATED”
Listening to the second album from London cutups Art Brut is like spending a draining day with a most eccentric friend who is needy and exasperating, witty and intense, paranoid and charming.
He’s a grand character created by singer Eddie Argos, who shapes him as a deadbeat with a bratty street inflection. “It’s a Bit Complicated” begins with an awkward sexual encounter, this one finding the man torn between the business at hand and turning up the volume on the stereo. Later, he’s tormented by curiosity about the prowess of his lover’s old boyfriends.
The album’s one sincere, heartfelt moment is his beautifully detailed memory of exchanging homemade cassettes with a friend, and trying to decode the messages in the selection of songs. But mostly it’s slapstick and social sketches, perfectly complemented by Art Brut’s music — a spiky, guitar-centric sound that’s bright and catchy but never out to upstage the star.
As good as much of the new British rock can be, it is experiencing a creeping seriousness these days. “It’s a Bit Complicated” is a welcome corrective.
RATING: 3 1/2 SOUND LEVELS
