Album Review: It's A Bit Complicated by Art Brut

Pretty much ignored in the UK after the brilliant racket of their self-explanatory debut single Formed a Band, Art Brut went off and developed a huge live following in America and Europe. They even appeared on the cover of German Rolling Stone. With little bits of both the Fall and Half Man Half Biscuit in their DNA, they are a thoroughly English proposition.

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From Art Brut's first moments, they've been high-concept -- after all, their debut single was about how they formed, and sounded like they recorded it immediately after getting together -- so it probably shouldn't come as a surprise that they've become increasingly meta, or that It's a Bit Complicated tends to feel like it's based on the concept of what Art Brut's second album should sound like. In the wake of Bang Bang Rock & Roll's success, Eddie Argos and company are no longer underdogs, so the band's sound is bigger, bolder, and more confident. There's more distance in Argos' lyrics -- there are no more stories of how long it's been, to the second, since he's seen the first girl he ever loved, or how his little brother just discovered rock & roll.

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