The Cribs Find a Home With Franz's Alex Kapranos

British indie trio the Cribs have been around for years, but their third album, 'Men's Needs Women's Needs Whatever,' due July 17, is poised to give them a hard fought breakthrough.

"It's definitely like we're doing in properly," co-frontman Ryan Jarman tells Spinner. "Before, it didn't feel real because we didn't have a deal. Now it feels like we're having a proper go at stuff, but also you feel frustrated for the last couple of albums. It's like this is what we should have been doing all along."

Another thing the Cribs -- Ryan, bassist Gary and drummer Ross Jarman -- got right this time around? Their record producer. After composing all the new cuts in a garage-like practice space in Wakefield near Leeds, they absconded to Vancouver to lay down the tracks with none other than Franz Ferdinand singer Alex Kapranos.

The Cribs met Kapranos after a gig several years ago in London, but got to know him on a personal level after his band, and Death Cab For Cutie, hand-selected the Jarman boys' band to open a lengthy trek across the U.S. last summer. That tour taught them everything they needed to know about the Scotsman's production pedigree.

"We shared the same values on records," Ross says. "Having something hi-fidelity is not always as important as having character. [We'd agree on things like that] and also we'd bitch about all the current producers and how all the latest records sounded sterile."

Though Kapranos wasn't yet a celebrated studio technician, the Cribs say such praise is impending. "It definitely was a risk, but I think it paid off," Ross says. "We did want to make something more unique, and Alex has said he only wanted to produce two bands -- us and Sons & Daughters."