After two decades, nine albums, and more than a few hard-earned lessons, the Cribs return sounding newly aligned with who they are and why they started. Selling A Vibe, their first album in five years, lands as a reset and a reckoning. The record places brotherhood front and center, not as a marketing angle but as the emotional engine driving the band forward.

Gary, Ryan, and Ross Jarman have always worn their family ties implicitly. This time, they say it out loud. Coming off Night Network, an album that looked like a high point from the outside, the pandemic forced separation and reflection. The brothers realized the balance had shifted over the years. What began as brothers who had a band had quietly become a band that happened to be brothers. Selling A Vibe is about pulling that relationship back into focus and owning what it means to create together after everything they have shared.

Produced by Patrick Wimberly, known for his work with MGMT and Caroline Polachek, the album finds the Cribs opening their sound to new ideas without losing their snap. Wimberly encouraged the band to embrace contemporary pop recording techniques for the first time, subtly reshaping their attack while keeping the urgency intact. The result feels sharper, more immediate, and confidently modern without chasing trends.

Songs like “Distractions” and “A Point Too Hard To Make” balance sweetness and tension, while “Self Respect” leans into a danceable pulse that expands the band’s palette. There is still bite here, still sweat and volume, but it is tempered by perspective. These are songs written by people who have been through the cycle, burned out, regrouped, and chosen to continue together.

The album closes with “Brothers Won’t Break,” a direct and disarming acknowledgment of the bond that has carried the Cribs this far. It is not sentimental, but it is honest. Selling A Vibe captures a band reconnecting with its foundation and finding strength in it. For the Cribs, family is not just history. It is the present tense.