12:12 Tune of the Day: Cheat On Me — The Cribs
Posted By Ben W. on August 31, 2009
The weird winding road that is Johnny Marr’s post-Smiths career continues today with the release of the new Cribs single.
Marr, don’t you know, is The Cribs’ new lead guitarist — a plot twist only slightly less strange than his two years spent with Modest Mouse.
The Cribs, at least, are a band steeped in the British tradition of tabloid poses and winning melodies. But are they that good? Are they worthy of his majesty?
A brief history, just so we’re all on the same page here — Marr co-founded The Smiths when he was 19 with Steven Patrick Morrissey. Together they wrote an absurd amount of classic songs in five short years, forever changing the face of British pop. Marr’s guitar genius lay not with his ability to play the fastest, craziest solos but rather in his keen understanding of how best to serve the song. He layered part after part on top of each other to create intricate webs of guitar melody. I’ve heard certain Smiths songs literally hundreds of times, and I’m still finding new guitar lines Marr tucked away in the back left of the mix during a bridge. He is the great ego-less guitar God of all time.
I’m happy to report that those same gifts remain readily displayed on “Cheat On Me.” His is the guitar on the left side of the stereo, perfectly shading Gary Jarman’s more obvious (though still lovely) finger-picked riff. He’s not doing anything that is absolutely necessary. If you eliminated Marr from the mix, the single would still be fully functional as a three-piece arrangement. But oh what you’d be missing. Just with a few minor chord strums and those elegantly melodramatic slides between notes, he’s added an emotional depth and bittersweet resonance previously foreign to The Cribs.
He’s the perfect collaborator, because he doesn’t have to dominate the song to make his presence felt. It’s comparable to a great point guard in basketball who can control the game without scoring points. He’s the Steve Nash of pop guitar, if you will. The idea of a 45-year-old guitar legend shacking up with an established band of three 20-something brothers to write a new set of songs is a terrible one. This shouldn’t work. But the fact that it does work — at least on this lead single — is a testament to just how good Marr is at blending in and serving the song.
And the song itself? It’s good. The Cribs always have had a bit more passion for the old American underground (Sonic Youth’s Lee Ranaldo guested on their last album) than their Brit Pop contemporaries. They covered The Replacements last year for a B-side. And that comes through here, as the chorus captures some of that Westerberg melancholy grit nicely. Unlike Westerberg, they don’t quite have the lyrics to really knock the heartbreak out of the park. But “Things go together better than others, like manic depression and active sexuality,” isn’t bad at all.
Fans may be disappointed by two things. One, the production courtesy of Nick Launey (Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Maximo Park) is far more professional than their previous amateurish charm. But get over it. That’s a good thing. Two, this isn’t one of the band’s typical slap-you-in-the-face addictive melodies. It’s more of a slow burner. But get over that too. It, too, is a good thing. Marr’s addition has lent them a more mature sound — and a maturity that is neither awkwardly over-ambitious nor boring. This is the sound of progress for a band that may just be ready to take the next step into the big leagues.
No, The Cribs are not The Smiths and never will be. Neither singer, Ryan nor Gary Jarman, can hold a candle to Morrissey as a vocalist or lyricist. So I guess on that level, this will always be a sad collaboration to Smiths fans. Marr’s talents will almost certainly never be utilized as fully and as beautifully as they were back in the mid 80s. But if you get past that, what you find is a collaboration that could be (I said could be ) the best thing Marr has been part of since he was 25. The album drops Sept. 7. Here’s to hoping.
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God, that’s some beautiful guitar work. I think you got it spot-on when you said, Just with a few minor chord strums and those elegantly melodramatic slides between notes, he’s added an emotional depth and bittersweet resonance previously foreign to The Cribs. This song isn’t anything to write home about, but it is growing on me.