The Cribs Reveal New Single ‘Never The Same,’ Originally Penned for Louis Tomlinson
The Cribs have unveiled their latest single, “Never The Same,” a track with an intriguing backstory – it was initially composed with Louis Tomlinson in mind. the song serves as a preview of the Wakefield trio’s ninth studio album, ‘Selling A Vibe,’ slated for release this Friday, January 9, and is available for pre-order and pre-save now.
The band described the new track as a return to their core principles.”‘Never The Same’ is kind of a throwback to our original approach: trim all the fat, bring it in as short as possible and keep out of the way… streamlined, stylish,” explained singer and guitarist Ryan Jarman. He further elaborated on the lyrical content, noting its paradoxical nature: “It’s almost a little paradoxical as lyrically it’s about feeling like a different person at this point in life, and missing the chaos of your previous existence, even if it wouldn’t make sense anymore.”
the origins of “Never The Same” are rooted in the band’s experience at Tomlinson’s Away From Home festival in Italy in 2023.According to singer and bassist Gary Jarman, the song came together quickly following discussions with Tomlinson’s management about potential collaborations on the former One Direction member’s next LP. “We wrote ‘Never The Same’ the evening that we returned home from Italy, after playing Louis Tomlinson’s Away From Home festival,” Jarman stated. “The night before, we had been talking with Louis’ manager about maybe writing and/or producing some tracks for his next LP, so upon our return to wakefield we got to work and banged this out.
The band’s upcoming album is being produced by a strong production team. NME recently highlighted both Tomlinson’s upcoming album and The Cribs’ ‘Selling A Vibe’ as highly anticipated releases of 2026.
The Cribs’ shift towards a more pop-oriented sound on ‘Selling A Vibe’ is a deliberate one, stemming from a desire to embrace a previously suppressed aspect of their musical identity. During a summer interview with NME,Ryan jarman discussed their collaboration with producer patrick Wimberly,formerly of Chairlift,and his influence on the album’s direction. “We’ve always had a real pop side to the band, and we love pop music. We always really liked pop melodies and a lot of pop devices, like big hooks and all that stuff,” he explained.”We’ve frequently enough – just out of some punk rock guilt – buried it. We focused more on the noisier side. So when we worked with Patrick, we felt like we had a good set of pop songs.” He continued, “We wanted to work with him so he could work on bringing that out.His production was really good for that. He came up with a lot of things that we wouldn’t have necessarily come up with on our own. I just didn’t feel like we had anything left to prove,as far as the indie and punk shit goes. We’ve done eight records of that.”
The Cribs will be touring the UK in March 2026, with dates including: March 18 at Boiler Shop in Newcastle, March 20 at Foundry in Sheffield, March 21 at Albert Hall in Manchester, March 22 at O2 Institute 1 in Birmingham, March 24 at Rock City in Nottingham, March 25 at Tramshed in Cardiff, and March 27 & 28 at Concorde 2 in Brighton. They will also perform at Truck Festival and Kendal Calling 2026 in july, and will be holding intimate instore/outstore gigs this month.Tickets for the tour can be found [here](Find any remaining tickets here.).
‘Selling A Vibe’ builds upon the success of their critically acclaimed 2020 album, ‘Night Network,’ which NME lauded as “their best album in a decade” in a five-star review, and will include previously released singles ‘Summer Seizures’ and ‘A Point Too Hard To Make’.
