WHO: Exuberant English quartet with a lean, crude riff-rock sound and a brilliantly funny frontman, Eddie Argos, who specializes in childlike, half-spoken vocals about erectile dysfunction and other romantic misadventures. After declining to attend university – he deliberately flunked his admissions exams, choosing to write his essay about “the A-Team” – Argos formed Art Brut in 2002. After an endearingly funny 2005 debut and a series of killer live gigs on both sides of the Atlantic, Art Brut amped up their sound for their great new album, It’s a Bit Complicated.

HEAR IT NOW: Complicated gets huge mileage out of a simple sound: Exuberant, garage-y banging overlayed with half-spoken jokes and narratives, with Argos picking through the ashtray of his brain and offering himself as the punchline – as on “Jealous Guy,” where he tries to “accidentally” wake his sleeping girl to get laid. Check out that unique sound on Art Brut’s MySpace page.

WATCH IT: Dig the video for Complicated’s banging new single, “Direct Hit.”

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Photo: Justin Borucki