Album Review: The Cribs – Selling A Vibe

SELLING A VIBE

Twenty years in, nine albums deep and The Cribs still sound like a band with something to prove. Not to scenes, algorithms or trends but to each other.

‘Selling A Vibe‘ isn’t a comeback record, nor is it a nostalgia lap, it’s something rarer, a reset that is rooted in brotherhood, perspective and a deliberate refusal to keep spinning on the release–tour–repeat hamster wheel.

For Gary, Ryan and Ross Jarman, The Cribs have always been about honesty and raw, unfiltered, heart-on-sleeve songs that values substance over sheen. But where previous records fired that honesty outward, ‘Selling A Vibe‘ turns it inward. For the first time, the brothers openly centre their relationship with each other and it gives the album a weight and warmth that lingers long after the final track fades.

That shift didn’t happen by accident, burnt out and scattered across three time zones, the band took an unusual but vital step, a summer together with no music, no writing, no pressure. Just reconnecting as brothers rather than bandmates, it’s a move that could’ve sounded indulgent on paper but the payoff is clear, this is a record made by a band who remembered why they started in the first place.

Sonically, ‘Selling A Vibe‘ refuses to play the hits. Instead of returning to familiar Cribs grit by numbers, the band enlisted Patrick Wimberly to gently pull them somewhere new. The result isn’t a glossy pop pivot but a more melodic, spacious Cribs record that still carries fuzz under its fingernails. Guitars bite when they need to but there’s patience here too, songs are allowed to breathe, hooks are given room to bloom and melodies are leaned into rather than buried.

Lead single ‘Summer Seizures’ sets the tone early, wistful, warm and quietly massive. ‘A Point Too Hard To Make’ is deceptively catchy, threading classic Cribs call-and-response through a song that feels untethered from any single era. ‘Never The Same’ stands as one of the band’s most reflective moments to date, a song about growth, shedding skins and accepting what’s left behind.

Elsewhere, ‘Self Respect’ grooves with unexpected swagger, while ‘Looking For The Wrong Guy’ cuts deep, documenting personal reckoning without melodrama. There’s maturity across the board here, but crucially, none of the fire has been dulled. The Cribs may be older, wiser and less chaotic, but they’re still very much alive to the thrill of a great hook and a song shouted back at them by a crowd.

The emotional core of the album arrives late with ‘Brothers Won’t Break’, a track that feels like a mission statement, a confession and a promise all at once. Recorded away from the main sessions, it closes the record not with bombast but with unity. It’s The Cribs owning who they are, without irony or self-deprecation and it lands because it’s earned.

‘Selling A Vibe‘ doesn’t chase relevance, it doesn’t posture, itt doesn’t pretend to be anything other than three brothers making the most honest record of their career at exactly the right time. In doing so, The Cribs have made their most open, ambitious and quietly powerful album yet.

This isn’t a band selling a vibe it’s a band selling the truth. And it’s one worth buying into.

Order ‘Selling A Vibe’ Here: https://thecribs.ffm.to/selling-a-vibe

Read our more in depth review of ‘Never The Same’ here: https://theindiemasterplan.co.uk/single-review-the-cribs-never-the-same