Na na naaaa, na na naaaa, na na na na na na naaaaaa (Costello Music - Fratellis)

Member Name: bondgirlk8

Product:	Costello Music - Fratellis
Date:	16/10/08 (535 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Upbeat, happy album which is bound to put you in a good mood

Disadvantages: If you don't want to cheer up, you might just hate it's jolliness

I feel about 5 when I listen to this album. It is just so full of sugar-induced childlike glee. If you are in search of a feel good album that will have you jumping up and down, perhaps even improvising a silly walk, then look no further. Costello Music puts you right there within a few bars of the opening track, and there you will stay - running round in manic circles - until you release that it's looped, is on repeat and you really are quite dizzy.

Costello Music is the debut album from Glaswegian rockers the Fratellis and is released under Fall Out Records. It was a reasonable success, peaking in the UK album charts at number 2. The success of the album and the international tours that followed resulted in the band winning the BRIT award for Best British Breakthrough Act in 2007. The album was recorded in LA's Sunset Studios, rather than in their native UK, allegedly due to Jon Fratelli wanting to create an 'analogue and old-fashioned' sound. I think he succeeded.

The main feel of the album is probably what you would get if you took The Libertines and massively Glammed them up. Crossing them with Slade would do the trick quite nicely. There are quite a lot of 70s sounding beats that suggest this was perhaps quite a big era of inspiration for the group. The band also use scat singing (vocally improvising random sounds) very effectively, most obviously in Chelsea Dagger, but the technique is used in a really powerful way throughout the album - clever, 'cos it's a noise anyone can make. One listen to the album and you do. Again, and again, and again....it's definitely that kind of album.

There are 13 tracks on Costello Music:

HENRIETTA: The debut single from the debut album, Henrietta, really captures what this album is all about. Bouncy, high energy, big-daft-grin inducing fun. Sets the tone very well indeed.

FLATHEAD: This track was used in an I-Pod advert and later released as a download only EP. A good track, but this is the point where, in one of my blacker moods, I'd get too annoyed with the jolliness and frantically switch to something which will allow me to enjoy my depression properly and have a good old sulk. Otherwise, the urge to punt Chelsea into the blue beyond is just too great.

CUNTRY BOYS AND CITY GIRLS: A very laddish enjoyable track. Definitely a highlight.

WHISTLE FOR THE CHOIR: The third single to be released from the album, sadly only reaching number 9. I loved it as a single, and I love it as part of this album. It's positioning within the album is just right, and the lyrics are fab. Apparently, this was originally meant to be called 'knickers in a handbag', but the label pressured them into changing it. What a shame.

CHELSEA DAGGER: Can anyone still listen to this? Overplaying has to be a sign that it was good though I suppose. I loved this track to start with, and it fitted so right with the Run, Fatboy, Run film, where it was used as part of the fabulous soundtrack. Since its adoption by the football crowds, however, I can't really hear it much anymore. I'm sure it'll come back. It is after all a very good song.

FOR THE GIRL: Such jolly la-la-la-ing can't be a bad thing. Another happy, bouncy, entertaining song.

DOGINABAG: There is a slight change to the tone, and this song feels a little bit more laid back. It has a more relaxed 60s/70s feel than the rest of the album.

CREEPIN' UP THE BACKSTAIRS: Yet another track that makes me want to jump like a loon and do a silly little dance. This is a really infectious song that makes me want to join in so much.

VINCE THE LOVEABLE STONER: Fabulous introduction to a song with such entertaining lyrics 'haven't seen a pupil in his eyes for 16 days' etc. Great song, and great story.

EVERYBODY KNOWS YOU CRIED LAST NIGHT: This song has a really strong beat and lyrics that stick strongly in your head. Nicely put together song.

BABY FRATELLI: The fourth single from the album, and this time it is Time magazine singing its praises, positioning it at number 10 in the Best 10 songs of 2007. This song sounds so distinctly Slade influenced that if I let myself believe it I could almost convince myself I can hear Noddy himself.

GOT MA NUTS FROM A HIPPY: Like lots of the tracks on the album, this song is a basically musical story-telling. It takes you on a nice little journey through the story, all to a fabulous - yet again stupidly enjoyable, beat.

OLE BLACK 'N' BLUE EYES: The fifth and final track to be released as a single, however, it received very little air play and didn't really chart (does reaching number 168 count?). It's a shame. This is a good song, and if nothing else is a lovely end to the album. This seems like it would be another good 'film soundtrack' choice. Chelsea reappears here, though this time, doesn't offend me at all - though that may because by this point in the album I'm back in a really good mood. It fits better here too.


In almost any mood, I really enjoy this album. In a good mood it's great, in a bad mood it perks you up - unless it is particularly dark and thunderous, where it will very quickly annoy me and make me violent. This is rare though. On the whole, a really enjoyable feel-good album.

© BondgirlK8 October 2008

Summary: Lets you remember what it feels like to be a kid on sugar high on the 1st day of the summer holidays