Art Brut vs. Satan

Pixies legend Frank Black produced Brit-punks Art Brut's third full-length, ART BRUT VS. SATAN. Not surprisingly, his influence is most revealed in Ian Catskilkin's guitar tones, which fight against the songs' dominant rhythms and waver between bratty chorus solos and muscular riffs. ART BRUT VS. SATAN is an aggressive-sounding record, despite the group's slacker charm, embodied in the sarcastic post-beat poetry of singer Eddie Argos. But SATAN further distinguishes the band from peers like Franz Ferdinand, all by virtue of their unwillingness to take themselves seriously, even as their music gets meatier and more adventurous. Contemporary Britpop simply doesn't get more fun than the faux-cautionary scream-along "What A Rush."