Album Review: The Cribs - Night Network

It’s extremely rare that a band can be active for nearly twenty years and eight albums, and still come out swinging with a new release – and yet that’s exactly what The Cribs have done. Their eighth offering Night Network is a smash, serving up excellent tunes that stay true to what made us love them in the first place.

In many ways Night Network is the band’s most mature work to date: as a whole, it’s an album about loss, fear, and worry. In other words, it’s about adulthood. ‘Running Into You’ and ‘Screaming In Suburbia’ particularly convey this feeling: the pair work extremely well together to ease us into the bulk of the album and portray the feeling that overshadows many of the tracks.

Not that that’s a negative feeling; for as much as Night Network grapples with some heavy and personal ideas, there’s something therapeutic in Gary Jarman’s voice across the board. Lead single ‘Never Thought I’d Feel Again’ is almost certainly the album’s standout: it grapples excellently with an emotional vulnerability we rarely see from male musicians, and it’s encouraging that such conversations are finally starting to be opened up. 

That feeling continues elsewhere on the album, too: ‘Deep Infatuation’ is yet another great track, capitalising on excellent harmonies from twins Gary and Ryan to deliver an extra layer of emotion that feels right at home with their historic sound. ‘I Don’t Know Who I Am’ is the album’s behemoth track – an existential crisis made song. It’s a five-minute epic that feels bold, moving, and ultimately upsetting; an ode to that person we lost and know we’ll never be the same without. Although the Jarman brothers hold no answers for us, we can certainly take comfort knowing we’re not alone.

One of Night Network’s most impressive aspects is how easily it switches tones; the crisis of ‘I Don’t Know Who I Am’ is quickly superseded by ‘She’s My Style,’ a more upbeat track that bops along nicely, and ‘Under the Bus Station Clock,’ a song that feels imbued with hope, leaving a smile on the face with ease. 

The back half of an album is usually where things start to drop off: not so here. Though some of these final few tracks might be a smidge less memorable than those that come before, they’re still solid entries in a genuinely brilliant album. ‘The Weather Speaks Your Name’ and ‘Earl & Duke’ are noticeably slower than many of the others, as though we’re pausing to take stock of things, while ‘Siren Sing-Along’ is admittedly one of the best tracks on the whole album. Final bow ‘In the Neon Night’ is at once upbeat and intimate – despite its energy it feels personal and afraid, and it’s a lovely track to close the album with.

That’s something that could be applied to the album as a whole; it balances a (mostly) bright sound with an intimacy that’s seldom seen from a band such as this, and it’s all the better for it. It’s a welcome return for The Cribs, and a great way for them to show that they’ve still got it – even after two decades of music.

Words: Matt Taylor