Crumbs - You’re Just Jealous (2024) Hi-Res

Crumbs are an irresistible indie-pop-mixed-with-post-punk band from Leeds, UK, featuring Ruth Gilmore (vocals), Stuart Alexander (guitar), Jamie Wilson (bass) and songwriter Gem Prout (drums). Their 2017 debut LP Mind Yr Manners (on Everything Sucks) finally gets a successor with You’re Just Jealous (on Skep Wax). Above all, these twelve new songs are bursting with motivation and expressiveness – the meters that indicate the energy level go way into the red. The guitar riffs are urgent but melodic, the rhythm section is unstoppable but tight, the vocals are charismatic but infectious. Breathtaking.

CRUMBS have been incubating You’re Just Jealous for a few years now. We don’t know how they kept all the energy in check. It must have been like sitting on a volcano. The songs burst out with pure pop fire, sending splinters of guitar, sharp lyrics and snatches of the catchiest backing vocals.

Think Delta 5 meeting Le Tigre in a dark alley in Leeds, fusing blindly and completely, and then forcing its way into the back entrance of a venue, sending volts through the limbs of the unwitting punters, forcing them to dance. This is TIGHT.

These songs do NOT outstay their welcome. Starts and ends are cut hard: no pre-echo, no wistful, drawn-out regretful fade-outs. Crumbs have imbibed the key lessons taught by The Gang Of Four and The Au Pairs: never let the energy dissipate.