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" &amp;quot;We&amp;#039;re pretty persistent,&amp;quot; Eddie Argos told us of his band&amp;#039;s secret to longevity. &amp;quot;I think we&amp;#039;d still be going now even if no-one had bought any of our records.&amp;quot; Thankfully, it hasn&amp;#039;t quite come to that for Art Brut. Top of the Pops collects the catchiest moments from the band&amp;#039;s four studio albums over the last decade, tacks on a couple of storming new tracks (&amp;#039;Arizona Bay&amp;#039; and &amp;#039;We Make Pop Music&amp;#039;) and - for the hardcore - bundles in a load of demos, live tracks and quirky covers. Disc One is The Hits (or the closest thing Art Brut have got to them, so far). Crafted around some super-sharp one-liners is track-after-track of tight-as-hell guitarpop that may not be the most wildly experimental music you&amp;#039;ll ever hear, but is up there as the most fun. It charts the progression from the witty, self-deprecating indie ambition of manifesto &amp;#039;Formed A Band&amp;#039; (&amp;quot;Stop buying your albums from the supermarket / They only sell records that have charted/ And Art Brut? We&amp;#039;ve only just started&amp;quot;) to the witty, self-deprecating indie ambition of closing autobiography &amp;#039;We Make Pop Music&amp;#039; (&amp;quot;We make pop music/ Guitar-based pop music / For people that don&amp;#039;t like people&amp;quot;). Disc Two fills in some of the gaps. There&amp;#039;s some early, not-all-that-different Keith Top of the Pops-produced versions of the songs that would end up on debut Bang Bang Rock &amp;amp; Roll, indie literate B-sides (&amp;#039;These Animal Menswear&amp;#039;) and sessions for It&amp;#039;s a Bit Complicated produced by Pulp&amp;#039;s Russell Senior. Covers include friends We Are Scientists (with a lawyer headache-inducing snippet of &amp;#039;Free Bird&amp;#039;) and The Cure&amp;#039;s &amp;#039;Catch&amp;#039;, which inspired Art Brut&amp;#039;s own bittersweet lovesong &amp;#039;Emily Kane&amp;#039;. Among the live tracks is a nine-minute version of &amp;#039;Modern Art&amp;#039; where a confessional Argos improvises himself into a corner before being rescued by the riff. Art Brut&amp;#039;s appropriately raw simplicity may be seen as a weakness but it&amp;#039;s also their biggest strength. Things may have got a tiny bit slicker by the time of the band&amp;#039;s third and best album Art Brut vs Satan, but aside from Eddie&amp;#039;s Frank Black-inspired attempts to properly sing on Brilliant! Tragic! (with mixed results: &amp;#039;Sexy Sometimes&amp;#039; - ooooh!, &amp;#039;Lost Weekend&amp;#039; - hmmmm) if it ain&amp;#039;t broke there seems little need to fix it. Scuzzy indie riffs meet knowing-but-not-arch lyrics about girls, pop music and never, ever growing up. What&amp;#039;s not to love?  Tracks to download: &amp;#039;Formed A Band&amp;#039;, &amp;#039;Emily Kane&amp;#039;, &amp;#039;Nag Nag Nag Nag&amp;#039;, &amp;#039;DC Comics and Chocolate Milkshake&amp;#039;, &amp;#039;Demons Out!&amp;#039;, &amp;#039;Arizona Bay&amp;#039;, &amp;#039;Bad Weekend&amp;#039;, &amp;#039;Modern Art (Live)&amp;#039; If you like this, you&amp;#039;ll like: The Indelicates, The Nerves, Pixies Watch the Art Brut &amp;#039;Formed A Band&amp;#039; music video below:      "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/music/album-reviews/review/a474033/art-brut-top-of-the-pops-album-review/>