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May 08, 2007
Monkeys come in from the cold with new album
A little over two years ago, Coldplay lead singer Chris Martin was asked on the BBC’s The Steve Lamacq Show what band he was the most excited for in the coming months. “Well, that is a bit obvious, isn’t it? I mean, I think everybody is excited for the Arctic Monkeys,” Martin replied.
When the lead singer of the biggest British band decides to drum up four guys from Sheffield instead of his own band, it's usually a sign that this new band might be worth a listen.
The sophomore release from northern English working-class kids the Arctic Monkeys, Favourite Worst Nightmare is not Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not part deaux, in fact, it's much better than that. From the first track, “Brainstorm,” the Monkeys mix reggae, funk and post-punk into a loud thrash that can say more in three chords about post-modern malaise than an entire library.
BBC’s Jo Whiley said on a recent show after playing the new song, “Teddy Picker,” that the new album is, “loud, harsh and fast.” Lead singer Alex Turner, whose scratchy voice croons along with the feedback from his guitar, told BBC Radio 6 the new songs are, “very different from last time,” saying that some songs were, “a bit full-onča bit like “From the Ritz to t’she Rubble,” “The View from the Afternoon,” that sort of thing.”
The band making it to their second album at all is an accomplishment. After bassist Andy Nicholson quit prior to their summer 2006 U.S. tour, the band persevered with stand-in bassist Nick O’Malley. But could they recapture the magic from their first recording sessions?
According to New Musical Express, early in February 2007 the band performed a secret show at a lead mill in their hometown of Sheffield. The results took the whole crowd’s breath away. The show debuted six of the songs on the new album and New Musical Express wrote that it was genius.
Heavy on the bass beat, songs like, “This House is a Circus” and “If You Were There, Beware” show that O’Malley has not become just filler in the band’s line-up but a contributing member with a mind of his own. Turner’s breakneck speed with lyrics still shows up throughout the album, but not to the extent it did on the debut. In this work the Monkeys are mourning lost nights of debauchery, death and broken hearted lovers. The album acts as a potent warning to the club life and nights of excess that the first album portrayed so well in all its brutal honesty.
If one thing could be said about the Arctic Monkeys' new release, it is that it’s honest. No dream romances or wrist-slitting melancholy, just loud, harsh music about blue collar English kids growing up in the ruins of an industrial city and trying to make it out alive.
Essential Tracks:
-505
-Brainstorm
-Balaclava
-D is for Dangerous
-Only One Who Knows
Posted by dwright at May 8, 2007 09:33 PM
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