The Fratellis

The Fratellis may sound fairly harmless with their pub rock, boppy sing-alongs and half-tipsy harmonies. But then they throw in a sardonic crack here ("you know cold-blooded women make me sneeze") and a warping Zeppelin-esque riff there ("Tell Me a Lie") and you realize these guys have the kind of amiable edge you want to lift your pint to. "My Friend John" is a dancy rocker set at an Arctic Monkeys pace, "Stragglers Moon" has a whimsy Rubber Soul feel, "A Heady Tale" is coated in Southern rock and the piano-heavy "Milk & Money" is perfect for those last stubborn boozers of the night.

In 2006, this scottish trio burst onto the U.K. charts with their debut, Costello Music, where
they sounded like popwise lads who'd downed a steady diet of T.Rex, Oasis and beer.
Here We Stand keeps up its predecessor's swagger, but the album's debts to glam and
Brit-rock forbears (there's some Bowie and Clash here, too) give you a vague sense you've
heard these songs before. Still, that doesn't mean tracks like "Shameless" and "Mi... More >