Art Brut have been called many things over the course of our career, not all of them polite. The thing we get called most often is an ‘art band’, which I accept is totally our fault for putting the word Art in our name. However, Art Brut have never seen ourselves as an art band, we have been adamant since we began that we are, in fact, a classic rock band.

Click below to listen to the track “Arizona Bay”

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/exclusive-premiere-art-brut-find-earthquakes-exhilarating-in-arizona-bay-20130311

I submit the following evidence towards the case of us being a CLASSIC ROCK BAND

– We have been on the front cover of German Rolling Stone.

– Toured the world extensively.

– Appeared on American chat shows.

– Posed naked in the NME.

– Had our lyrics be the subject of lectures at a Berlin university.

– Released four albums over the period of ten years (the last two produced by the legendary Black Francis from the Pixies).

– And finally we are held in universal regard by both our peers and the general public.

(Actually, with that last one I’ve never checked with our peers and have very little to do with the general public but am fairly certain that is the case).

So, to celebrate our new status as a CLASSIC ROCK BAND we have decided to release a Best Of Compilation.

It is called ‘Art Brut; Top Of The Pops’ and is a double album (or if you are downloading it, a lot of songs).

CD1 contains the best and most popular songs from our career in chronological order. So you can see clearly that we have followed the CLASSIC ROCK blueprint exactly –

Album One, Excited

Album Two, Confused

Album Three, Angry

Album Four, Experimental

Plus, TWO BRAND NEW TRACKS. They’re about enjoying natural disasters and making pop music. Optimistic rebirth .

This is textbook CLASSIC ROCK BAND stuff.

CD2 contains rare songs that Freddy Feedback rescued from our vaults including live songs, covers we finally got round to asking for permission to release, hard to acquire b-sides and unreleased demos from our recording sessions for ‘Its A Bit Complicated’ that took place with Pulp’s Russel Senior (who is not mad, I promise).

As a treat to ourselves we commissioned one of our favourite artists Michael Riedel to do the art work for us.

‘Top Of The Pops’ Tracklisting

CD1

01. Formed A Band
02. My Little Brother
03. Emily Kane
04. Modern Art
05. Good Weekend
06. Direct Hit
07. Nag Nag Nag Nag
08. St. Pauli
09. Pump Up The Volume
10. DC Comics And Chocolate Milkshake
11. Alcoholics Unanimous
12. Summer Job
13. Demons Out!
14. Axl Rose
15. Sexy Sometimes
16. Lost Weekend
17. Sealand
18. Arizona Bay (new)
19. We Make Pop Music (new)

CD2

01. Formed A Band (Early Keith Top Of The Pops Version)
02. Bad Weekend (Early Keith Top Of The Pops Version)
03. These Animal Menswear (B-Side)
04. Modern Art (Early Keith Top Of The Pop Version)
05. Maternity Ward (B-Side)
06. Blame It On The Trains (Produced by Russel Senior)
07. Post Soothing Out (Produced by Russel Senior)
08. St. Pauli (Produced by Russel Senior)
09. About Time (B Side)
10. Ignorance Is Bliss (B Side)
11. Catch (The Cure Cover)
12. Modern Art (recorded for Berlin Live)
13. Just Desserts (alt version of B-Side to Alcoholics Unanimous)
14. Moved To L.A. (Art Brut vs Satan iTunes bundle)
15. Weird Science (B-Side)
16. Positively 5th Street (B-side)
17. Unprofessional Wrestling (Download only)
18. The Great Escape (We Are Scientists/Lynyrd Skynyrd cover)
19. Her Majesty (Beatles cover arr. by Black Francis)
20. Post Soothing Out (recorded for Berlin Live)

www.artbrut.org.uk

http://theendrecords.com