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The Cribs share "I Don't Know Who I Am" ft. Sonic Youth's Lee Ranaldo

The Cribs release new album Night Network in November and among the tracks is “I Don’t Know Who I Am” which reunites the UK band with Sonic Youth‘s Lee Ranaldo, who collaborated on “Be Safe” from 2007’s Men’s Needs, Women’s Needs, Whatever. They’ve now shared the new song which is a much poppier undertaking than their dissonant original collaboration.

“‘I Don’t Know Who I Am’ (although ultimately quite different) came together in much the same way as ‘Be Safe’ did back in 2006 – we had a recording of a long, improvised noise-jam which we then tried to refine into a more cohesive song structure,” says The Cribs’ Gary Jarman. “Due to the similarities in the writing process, it made us think of Lee again…we had initially requested that he play noise guitar over the track, because we wanted to keep it somewhat abstract and create the impression of the melodies just kind of emerging out of the static…but he went beyond the call of duty and also added some beautiful vocal harmonies too, out at the Sonic Youth studio in New Jersey.”

Gary continues, “Working with Lee on ‘Be Safe’ was without question one of the highlights of our career as a band, and we think that ‘I Don’t Know Who I Am’ is a worthy follow up collaboration. We are very proud of how it turned out. Lyrically, the song addresses the disconnect that Ryan and myself have always had with our biological paternal lineage – and how that may have shaped our views on masculinity, gender roles, and the men we ultimately grew up to be.”

The video for “I Don’t Know Who I Am'” was directed by Nick Scott and juxtaposes daily routines of both The Cribs and Lee Ranaldo. You can watch that below.

Night Network will be out November 13 via Sonic Blew/[PIAS].