With each album, the Cribs have gotten a little sharper and more focused, and nowhere is this clearer than on the brilliantly named Mens Needs, Womens Needs, Whatever. For their major label debut, the band enlisted Franz Ferdinands Alex Kapranos as producer. Its a good match: while he doesnt impose too much of Franzs clockwork precision on the band, Kapranos reins in the Cribs more shambling tendencies just enough. Mens Needs, Womens Needs, Whatever kicks off with a slew of bouncy, angular songs about awkward relationships and killer crushes that sound like state-of-the-art British indie circa the late 2000s. In particular, "Our Bovine Public"s ridiculously catchy melody and punchy drums feel like the results of an experiment to fuse together Maximo Park, the Futureheads, and Good Shoes in some secret lab. "Girls Like Mystery" and "Im a Realist" (which states, bluntly, "Im an indecisive piece of sh*t") follow suit with more witty lyrics, sweet harmonies, and rousing choruses. However, as Mens Needs, Womens Needs, Whatever unfolds, the Cribs broaden their horizons. Their long standing love of American indie music crops up frequently: Ryan Jarmans yelping vocals evoke Weezers Rivers Cuomo on "Moving Pictures," while jaunty, vulnerable songs about emptiness like "Ive Tried Everything" and "My Life Flashed Before My Eyes" would fit right into the Strokes discography. Elevated by a poetic rant by Sonic Youths Lee Ranaldo, "Be Safe" sounds, in the best possible way, like some great lost alt-rock song from 1995. Its easily the best song on the album, which is kind of a shame since the Cribs (probably) cant recruit Ranaldo to be a full-time member. Fortunately, the tracks that follow it -- especially "Shoot the Poets," the pretty, slightly twangy acoustic song that closes the album -- show that the Cribs music cant be typecast quite as easily as earlier songs suggested. Some of the Cribs most immediate and widest-ranging music, Mens Needs, Womens Needs, Whatever reflects a band on the brink of mainstream success. ~ Heather Phares

Rovi