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The Fratellis have entered that awkward career midpoint for bands, where the tension between doing what comes easy to them and trying to expand their musical palette causes inevitable problems.
In The Fratellis’ case, what comes easy to them is sweet, tuneful rock n’ roll that pounds away cheerfully enough on the surface but has a slight melancholy to the vocals and chord progressions that gives it some tougher, juicier flavour underneath. Their biggest hit, “Chelsea Dagger”, isn’t really like this: it’s just straight-ahead, upbeat rock music. But right from their first album, tunes such as “Flathead” and “For the Girl” hid a slightly sour core underneath the guitars-and-drums surface, which came across to fans like me as a strange tension and can only be described as beautiful.
“You never quite put your finger on it and nobody ever well. “Why do I like it? I guess for us it was. I can’t think of many Glasgow or Scottish artists who performing in the Barrowlands isn’t the place you aspire to. “It is almost like I don’t know if anybody ever aspires to play in the SECC, Hydro or Hampden. As aspirations they seem just too far-fetched when you are kicking about wherever it is that you have grown up in and you are dreaming about…God wouldn’t it be great if I just got to play guitar and music for a living.