Sure, Costello Music comes off as yet another run-of-the-mill britpop album on the surface, but luckily, The Fratellis happen to have a trick up their sleeves; flamboyant, Franz-Ferdinand-y dance punk meets circa-1930’s music hall melodies. Yes, underneath all those snarls, leather jackets, and strategically tangled hair, The Fratellis sound like they were just as destined to be the stars of a Vaudevillian musical as they were to be danced to by a bunch of headphone-clad cartoons. Take opener “Henrietta” for example; in just over three and a half minutes, John Lawler guides his fellow Fratellis through raunchy disco rock, schizophrenic neo-Broadway dance breakdowns, cocky White-Striped blues punk and back again before you can say “awesome.”

 

But aside from “Whistle for the Choir,” where The Fratellis somehow figure out how to channel Hunky Dory-era David Bowie pretty flawlessly (see if you can’t hear a little Ziggy in Lawler’s cockney croon), Costello’s musical spectrum (ranging from polished indie rock to, well...slightly more polished indie rock) can get a little monochrome at times. But even when The Fratellis’ songwriting starts to lose a bit of its steam (let’s face it, “Henrietta” and “Creepin Up the Back Stairs” are kind of the same song), they still know how to play up their best assets; just enough fun-loving charm to be lovable balanced with just enough tongue-in cheek sleaze to be endearingly campy.