Arctic Monkeys


(Copyright © 2006 Piero Scaruffi | Terms of use )

Whatever People Say I Am (2006) , 6.5/10
Favourite Worst Nightmare (2007) , 5.5/10
Last Shadow Puppets: The Age Of The Understatement (2008), 6.5/10
Humbug (2009), 6/10
Suck It and See (2011), 5/10
AM (2013), 4/10
Tranquillity Base Hotel + Casino (2018), 4/10
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The Arctic Monkeys set the British record for fastest-selling debut album of all time (yawn). This new improved version of Oasis and the Smiths debuted with Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not (Domino, 2006), an album that was impressive for what it did "not" deliver as opposed to what it delivered: it did not deliver a single second of music that people had not heard before. The singles (Fake Tales of San Francisco, From the Ritz to the Rubble, When the Sun Goes Down), and notably I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor (2005), mixing a bouncy rhythm with extreme guitar noise or punk-pop and shoegaze, capitalized on the hype created by the generation of Franz Ferdinand. Alex Turner continues the English tradition of the everyday popper that started with John Lennon and continued with Morrisey, notably with emotional closer A Certain Romance. Among bands who do not aim at changing the world but simply at getting rich, the Arctic Monkeys fare pretty well. Brit-pop has done worse in the previous decade.

After the single Leave Before the Lights Come On, sophomore album Favourite Worst Nightmare (Domino, 2007) was still largely a Turner showcase, with the music adding little of substance to his psychological travails in ditties such as the visceral Brianstorm (tempo shifts, jagged riffs) and Teddy Picker (poppy the way the Clash were). However, parts of the album show a group in search of a real personality. Introduced by pseudo-reggae guitar, the vocals in Fluorescent Adolescent recite what they want as usual but it's as close as they get to a poppy song. D is for Dangerous features a heated dialog between voices and guitar, in an amateurish manner, while the drums keep a devilish pace. The gallopping Do Me a Favour adds layers of noise until it explodes like a shoegazing raga. This House is a Circus employs a pseudo-ska and funky beat for its crescendo to a bacchanal. Only Ones Who Know is the quiet before the storm, a subdued psychodrama accompanied by sparse guitar tones. 505 seems to pay tribute to Ennio Morricone's soundtracks. Overall, the sound of this album is way more intense.

The Last Shadow Puppets is the duo of Alex Turner and Miles Kane. Their The Age Of The Understatement (Domino, 2008) is the ultimate retro-pop album, sampling the styles of every master from Ennio Morricone to VanDyke Parks, with grand orchestral arrangements (courtesy of Final Fantasy's Owen Pallett conducting a 22-piece orchestra).

Turner's metamorphosis on Humbug (Domino, 2009) was impressive. Songs such as Crying Lightning introduced a mature crooner bent on loud hysterical outbursts of existential spleen a` la Smashing Pumpkins. The Jeweller's Hands is a mournful ballad, although similar efforts such as Potion Approaching and Dance Little Liar leave to be desired. The music follows suite by opening up in different directions. The Middle Eastern-style chant of My Propeller is wed to twangy guitar and circular drumming. The eccentric Pretty Visitors sounds like a zombie movie soundtrack. They counterbalance these extroverted moments with some of their simple songs: Dangerous Animals, that boasts little more than martial drums, and especially Cornerstone, a shuffle marked by the twangy guitar (the true second voice of the album).

Suck It and See (2011) contains several catchy ditties (the hypnotic hard-rock of Don't Sit Down 'Cause I've Moved Your Chair, and the jangling Dylanian ode Love is a Laserquest), but tends to fall in the morose trap of Brit-pop of the 1990s (the anemic lullaby She's Thunderstorms, the overblown The Hellcat Spangled Shalalala).

AM (2013) included some decent singles (the Black Sabbath-ian R U Mine? of 2012, and the march-tempo falsetto-based bubblegum-pop of Snap Out of It), but also embarrassing filler like Why'd You Only Call Me When You're High? and One for the Road (mainly notably for incorporating hip-hop moves), while Do I Wanna Know? and Arabella "boast" riffs that evoke second-rate British soul-rock of the 1970s.

The sound of Tranquillity Base Hotel + Casino (Domino, 2018) focused squarely on strings and synths, largely ditching Jamie Cook's guitar riffs and Matt Helders' creative drumming. Sometimes the results hark comically back to the 1950s, like the lounge jazz of Star Treatment, the moronic pop of Golden Trunks and the swooning piano ballad Ultracheese, and sometimes mimic David Bowie, like in the Ziggy Stardust-era melodrama of American Sports and the pompous Four out of Five. The World's First Ever Monster Truck Front Flip sounds like a marching musichall skit, and Tranquillity Base Hotel + Casino sounds like a defanged, lightweight version of Nick Cave's parables. They are hardly reasons to listen to this album, but they are the standout songs.

(Copyright © 2006 Piero Scaruffi | Terms of use )
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