The Cribs: 'I'm A Realist'

Currently gallivanting around the country with Johnny Marr on the NME Awards Tour, The Cribs are top of the pile when it comes to 'cool' guitar bands at the moment. Last year's Men's Needs, Women's Needs, Whatever album saw the Wakefield ruffians polish up their twanging guitar strings and finally manage to transfer the riotous style of their live shows onto record. Meanwhile, Ryan Jarman bagged himself a pretty celeb girlfriend in Kate Nash and launched an all-out attack on the indie music scene - describing it as a bigger problem than global warming. All-in-all, that's a pretty successful 12 months.

New single 'I'm A Realist', the fourth from the album, is a welcome antidote to the Acoustic Bed-Wetting Hits compilations that have been doing the rounds for Valentine's Day. A laid-back, jaunty guitar line accompanies Jarman's typically sarcastic and foul-mouthed opening gambit: "I'm a realist, I'm a romantic, I'm an indecisive piece of sh*t." No roses for Kate Nash this year then! While it lacks the bite and carnage of their other releases, it should please daytime radio schedulers, and if that means more people get to enjoy The Cribs experience, well, that's all fine 'n' dandy with us.