The Fratellis - Costello Music > Reviews > A cutting edge Fratellis dagger

Author's product rating:   

Originality	Definitely a cut above the rest
Lyrics	Thought-provoking
Quality and consistency of tracks	Flawless
How does it compare to the artist's other releases	Not applicable
Value for Money	Excellent

Advantages:	Upbeat,sing along album, no weak tracks, even makes me want to dance
Disadvantages:	It ends !

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Intro
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I love this genre of music, however I cant remember the last time I went out to HMV and actually paid for one. We normally Purchase the albums from play for a far cheaper price. That is until the day that I heard Chelsea Dagger on the radio whilst on a coach from London to Oxford. As soon as got off the coach I went straight into HMW to buy the record. Luckily the album was on offer at £8.95 so I did not have to pay much more then plays price.

Who are the Fratellis?
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The Fratellis are an all male three-piece Indie/Rock group that hail from Glasgow, Scotland. The bands debut album has been released to widespread acclaim, which has seen the band, pick up prestigious awards like the best breakthrough artist at the Brits for 2007.

The Album Cover
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The Album cover is a cartoonist image of Women dressed from the 1950’s (like the retro postcards that you get at the seaside) picking out Vinyl for the record collection. This is the retro image that the band I think, are trying to express. This theme is carried out throughout the booklet that comes with the album, with the images of the old fashioned ladies appearing alongside the song lyrics whilst holding the Fratellis album cover. Inside the cover is handly the words to all of the songs, Many of which need to be placed to fully understand the meaning of the song.

The covers for each of the bands singles that have been released thus far are exactly the same.

The Album

The album has 12 listed tracks and is 45 minutes long, which is about normal for a decent album. Here is a song by song rating of the album

1 Henrietta – What better way to draw the listener into the album then putting an upbeat track at the beginning. This song certainly gets your attention from the off. This song has a really happy feel to it, but is dark lyrics are actually about a tale of an older woman stalker 9/10
2 Flathead – This song follows straight one from Henrietta. With a catchy one line chorus of “bara bap bara ra ra ra bara bap bara ra ra ra” . This is a song that you will want to sing over and over again once it gets stuck into your head. 8/10
3 Whistle for the choir – Refreshing slow acoustic number. If I didn’t know who sang this I wouldn’t think it was The Fratellis. This song is about the harsh nature of city life for someone who comes from a smaller place, and turns into a love song after falling for an irresistible girl. 8.5/10
4 Chelsea Dagger – This Tune, and I will call it a tune as that is exactly what it is, is probably going to be the biggest track from the Album. This is an extremely catchy song and when I first heard it I was humming the tune at work for the next couple of weeks. It is a song that really just sticks in your head from the off and always make me just get up and dance. This is one of the Indie Anthems that will be around for years.
The Intro to the song is now been played throughout the country at football to after a goal is scored. 10/10
5 For the Girl – With more of an electric guitar sound to the Intro, this is again yet another fairly upbeat song. This is probably the weakest track on the album, but on other albums it would stand out as a very good track and has a very catchy chorus – 7.5/10
6 Doginabag – The intro sounds like it’s a song from a by-gone era, by another great band The Kinks. Again a faultless track with a heavy swing sound influence - 8/10
7 Creepin up the Backstairs – Many people will argue that this is the song of the album, I can see the argument, but for me Chelsea dagger wins that one. A high placed drum intro which is shortly accompanied by a swift handclap, which is something that happens on many of the songs. This continues at a vigorous pace, with a high tempo lyrical manner. This song makes me think of the things that a young couple would do to be with each other. Brilliant 9.5
8 Vince the loveable stoner – Nice slow song and a brilliant way to chill out after the high paced velocity that had been developing in the album. This song is exactly what it says on the tin – It’s the story of Vince who is druggie. With lines like “I haven’t seen a pupil in his eyes for sixteen days”, Lines like that may hopefully turn the youth away from drugs, well hopefully! 9/10
9 Everybody knows you cried last night – This song is exactly what you get from the album. This has one of the most defined and easiest choruses to sing along to. Yet another of the Albums quite slow and ssteady tracks, this one has quite a strong drum beat to it. 9/10
10 Baby Fratelli – If you like the upbeat tracks on the album thus far then here is another beauty for you. This one starts very quickly and never seems to rapidly accelerate like many of the other songs. This has a nice lull in the middle to catch your breath as well. The chorus is defiantly one that I will sing in an indie club when very drunk. One of my favourites 9/10
11 Got ma nuts from a hippy – This tune has some very witty Lyrics – Especially the first verse as I’m sure anyone who has every tried to chat up a girl in a nightclub will understand. This song is a combination of a mixture of the two types of music on this album. Its is both upbeat and frantic at times while exploring chilled out aspects. The Electric guitar features heavily. 8/10
12 Ole black ‘n’ blue eyes – I love albums that finish with more relaxing songs at the end and this is probably the finest slower song on the album. The story of a girl who wants to make in a rock n roll band, but the guy singer ended up beating the wannabe rocker up. This song features the title of this review “Chelsea has got nowhere to go” 9/10

Bonus Track – There is a bonus track on the end of the album that is un-named on the Album. This is again yet another excellent track upbeat rocky track and gives an extra little bit to the album that you probably expecting (well until I spoilt it that is!)

So what’s my verdict?

Well as you can probably tell by my song ratings the album is a really excellent. Many of the songs will instantly stick in your head. This album brings together the modern upbeat and modern sounds but still retains a retro theme to it. For example when I heard the first thirty seconds of one track I thought it could have easily been written by the beatles, but it then transformed into one of the rockier songs on the album

My favourite way to Judge an Album is to ask how bad songs does it have? Well I personally don’t think this album has any. This album is excellent for waking up to and makes everybody want to dance. Whilst this is my kind of music, a lot of my friends who don’t really go for the Indie/Rock scene also love this.

One of the Final lines on the song is that Chelsea’s got nowhere to be, I really hope that this isn’t the case with the Fratellis. Highly recommended and one of the best albums I have purchased in a long time. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy the album as much as me - 9/10