The Cribs: Men's Needs, Women's Needs, Whatever

Rock-buff tolerance for smart, laddish guitar-pop may be waning, but the more forgiving fans should still find room in their hearts for Yorkshire's brashly hooky trio The Cribs. On the band's third album, Men's Needs, Women's Needs, Whatever, the three Jarman brothers focus on short, bouncy, sing-song anthems, mostly dealing with the impossibility of male/female rapprochement in a mating sphere redolent of stale lager. The Cribs' songs run together some, and Strokes-y guitar eruptions on songs like "My Life Flashed Before My Eyes" make it hard to deny the over-familiarity of this sound. But maybe early-'00s modern rock has transformed into a genre all its own, which clever musicians can still use as a framework for personal stories and sketches.