OK, so Art Brut don't have to like The Stone Roses if they don't want to, and I'm free to like them both if I choose to.
The music itself is pretty generic, a young person's notion of what post-punk sounds like: somewhere between Weezer and Green Day on one side and the Arctic Monkeys and The Strokes on the other. The real hook of the band is the talk-singing delivery of the lead vocals which give the songs their shape and personality. As with Mark E. Smith of the Fall or Jarvis Cocker of Pulp, the songs are compulsively listen-able because the voice is distinct and irrepressibly chatty, and the stories always surprising and unexpected. It's like that friend you like to hear from who always has a story and a joke.
The danger for a band like this is that the songs have a sameness to them, and if you're not listening attentively it sounds like the same song over and over. But for now they have enough attitude and ideas to pull it off.
The best track is "Nag Nag Nag Nag" available at Salon for free.
