Album Info Hide Show Artist: The Cribs Album: Men’s Needs, Women’s Needs, Whatever Released: UK, 2022 Tracklist: A1 Our Bovine Public 2:18 A2 Girls Like Mystery 2:51 A3 Men’s Needs 3:18 A4 Moving Pictures 3:12 A5 I’m A Realist 3:05 A6 Major’s Tilting Victory 2:48 B1 Women’s Needs 4:36 B2 I’ve Tried Everything 2:48 B3 My Life Flashed Before My Eyes 3:32 B4 Be Safe 5:54 B5 Ancient History 4:50 B6 Shoot The Poets 3:27 Info About Buying Vinyl From Our Record Store We are a small independent record store located at 211 High St, Preston in Melbourne, Australia (North of Northcote, between Thornbury & Reservoir) We buy and sell new and used vinyl records – if you have a collection you’d like to sell please click here . We ship Australia wide for a flat rate of $10 for standard shipping or $15 for express post. Free Shipping for orders $150 and over. You can also pick up your order in store, just select Local Pickup at the checkout. We also ship internationally – prices vary depending on weight and location. We ship vinyls in thick, rigid carboard mailers with a crushable zone on either side, and for extra safety we bubble wrap the records. In stock vinyl is usally shipped next business day, please check the availability field at the top of the product page to see whether the record is currently in stock or if it is available from the supplier as well as estimated shipping times. If you order an in stock item together with a pre order or back order (listed as available from supplier rather than in stock) then the order will be shipped together when all items arrive. If you would like the in stock items shipped first please place two separate orders or contact us to arrange shipping items separately. We are strongly committed to customer satisfaction. If you experience any problems with your order contact us so we can rectify the situation. If the record arrives damaged or doesn’t arrive we will cover the cost of replacing or returning the record. If you change your mind you have 30 days to return your record but you must cover the cost of returning it to the store. You can contact our Melbourne record shop at (03) 9939 3807 or at [email protected] Happy Listening! Description Hide Show By the time the Jarman brothers hit their third record, theyd sharpened their scrappy Wakefield charm into something that could actually rattle the radio. Mens Needs, Womens Needs, Whatever arrived in May 2007 on Wichita in the UK, and it still feels like a perfect snapshot of the moment when The Cribs tightened the screws without sanding off the splinters. Alex Kapranos of Franz Ferdinand produced it, and you can hear his taste for taut rhythms and neat little stabs of guitar, but the heart is still very much the brothers Gary, Ryan and Ross, trading yelps and hooks like its last call in a sticky-floored venue. It opens with Our Bovine Public, all serrated guitars and eye-rolling at small-town nonsense, the sort of blast that reminds you why indie clubs used to go spare for this band. Then the big one hits. Mens Needs is a proper anthem, one of those choruses that can level a room without feeling cheap. The songs video, directed by Diane Martel, got trimmed for TV for obvious reasons, but the controversy never overshadowed the tune. Its wiry, a little snide, totally irresistible. Moving Pictures brings a bittersweet shimmer, while Im a Realist snaps and sprints like a caffeine rush. The tempos are brisk, the choruses keep coming, and Rosss drumming cleaves everything together with a no-fuss snap that always suited these lads better than gloss. The masterstroke is Be Safe. You dont expect a spoken-word monologue from Lee Ranaldo of Sonic Youth to be the emotional high point of a Cribs record, yet it lands like a gut punch. Over a steady build, Ranaldo talks about fear and resolve, the band pushing behind him until the whole thing blooms. It became a fan favourite for good reason, and if youve seen them roll out the video of Ranaldos face onstage while the Jarmans go for broke, you know how well it still works. It gives the album a spine, a reflective pivot that throws the fizzier tracks into sharper relief. Kapranoss production doesnt tidy The Cribs so much as focus them. Guitars grind without turning to mush, bass lines pop, and those ragged gang vocals feel close enough to touch. Lyrically its messy relationships, self-sabotage and the petty cruelties we pretend to shrug off, delivered with that unmistakable Yorkshire bite. Plenty of bands from that era chased bigger choruses and lost their bite. This one keeps its teeth. Reception at the time matched the step up in craft. The British music press rallied around it, with outlets like NME and The Guardian praising the bands leap from cult heroes to festival-bothering contenders. In the US, a Warner Bros release helped it travel further, but it never sounds like a compromise. It sounds like three brothers who know exactly what theyre good at, prodding their own formula in just the right places. If youd been following them since The New Fellas, this felt like the pay-off. If you came in cold through Mens Needs on the radio, it still holds as a gateway to a catalog thats more stubborn and more heartfelt than the fashion-cycle bands they outlasted. On vinyl the record really breathes. The top-end bite of Our Bovine Public, the low-end tug under Moving Pictures, and the hushed room tone at the start of Be Safe all feel more present. Mens Needs, Womens Needs, Whatever vinyl isnt just a nostalgic purchase, its the best way to catch the detail in those interlocking guitars. If youre crate digging for The Cribs vinyl, this is the one that won the band new diehards while keeping the old ones happy. And if you prefer to buy The Cribs records online, youll find plenty of copies floating around alongside other The Cribs albums on vinyl that make a solid little run from the debut through the late 2000s. For folks browsing vinyl records Australia wide, its the kind of title youll still see staff champion at a good Melbourne record store, because it turns a casual customer into a convert in one side. All these years later, the thrill hasnt dimmed. The riffs still barge in, the choruses still crack a grin out of you, and Be Safe still hits that quiet nerve when you least expect it. Not many 2007 indie records have aged this well. This one plays like a band right on time with itself, and that never goes out of style. Product Reviews Hide Show Write a Review