Scotland’s Fratellis yielded one of the more surprising rock success stories of 2007 when Costello Music, the energetic full-length debut by the upstart Glasgow band, racked up impressive enough sales to muscle its way to No. 2 on the ever-volatile British charts, netting the title of Best British Breakthrough Act at the Brit Awards in the bargain. Stateside, the band has gone from playing next to a barbecue at an outdoor bar at SXSW in 2006 to a high-profile slot at the Coachella Festival in ’07, while their emblematic single “Flathead” became the soundtrack to a ubiquitous iPod advertising campaign.
But all the critical ink expended on the Fratellis’ original Costello Music “sound”―a boisterous rhythmic stew that seemingly diced Kinks, traditional English music hall, and brawny ’90s Brit pop with heady abandon―misses an underlying irony: frontman Jon Lawler (aka Jon Fratelli) argues his band simply didn’t know any better, the album’s stripped-down, straightforward ethos largely the byproduct of inexperience and musical naivete. “When we made Costello Music we’d only been together nine months or so,” Lawler admitted to his national newspaper, The Scotsman. “In that time we’d only done 25, 30 gigs. That’s not really enough to decide how it is that you sound. After you’ve toured for two years, that’s when you end up becoming the band you’re gonna be.”
The band the Fratellis have become a heady year later is forcefully showcased on Here We Stand, already a million-seller in Britain and an album that harnesses the band’s frenzied energy to considerably expanded songwriting horizons and a more disciplined studio presence. Even Lawler’s former mod-cut has since given way to a mane of curly rocker locks.
That inviting musical evolution is evident from the feverish opening riff-rocker “My Friend John” and its sunny, piano-driven follow-up “A Heady Tale” to “Shameless,” a sing-along anthem whose swagger again displays the band’s apparently bottomless bag of hooks and riffs. The second single “Look Out Sunshine” may draw on music hall traditions that never seem far from the Frats best songs, but here it’s merrily channeled through an effervescent ’70s pop single sensibility that’s a stark contrast to the album’s first single, “Tell Me Mable,” a rocker as infectious as it is utterly fluffy.
Lawler admits he had problems with the band’s label elevating “Mable” to single status, but understands “it’s them erring on the side of safety.” On the other hand, he’s “really proud of how ‘A Heady Tale’ turned out. I couldn't see anyone taking that kind of chance with that kind of bar room piano. It’s not really that trendy just now, is it?”
“But ‘Stragglers Moon’ is probably my favorite song on the album,” Jon says of the spooky track whose minor-key hook freely borrows Little Richard’s “The Girl Can’t Help It” refrain to good effect. “I can’t hear anyone else in our league coming up with that song. It’s definitely got a Floyd or Beatles edge to it. We’re really big Floyd fans. I think the whole record has got that ambition in there.”