Monkey Business
- JDmichael
- Mar 14, 2016
- 4 min read
For anybody who has been living under a rock for the past decade, Arctic Monkeys (pictured above) have been dominating the charts and blessing the world with anarchic and seductive vibes.
Inasmuch as they are in a hiatus as of 2014, most probably so frontman Alex Turner can focus more on his side project with Miles Kane - The Last Shadow Puppets, the Arctic Monkeys exploded onto the scene with their unruly debut album Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not (2006). It became the fastest-selling debut album in UK history at the time, surpassing Elastica's self-titled album, and has gone quantiple platinum. The people had spoken. Arctic Monkeys had spoken. They were here to stay and for the long haul too - even if this was contradicted by the hurriedly exported but beautifully titled Who The Fuck Are Arctic Monkeys? which was released just months after their debut album. Personally, it has got to be claimed that the best songs from their debut effort are 'I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor', 'Mardy Bum' and 'When The Sun Goes Down'.
Following a plethora of 2005-7 tours and festivals, they resurfaced record-wise with their sophomore album, Favourite Worst Nightmare - taken from the song 'D Is For Dangerous' from it. Recorded in Liverpool and London, the lads from Sheffield once again topped the charts with their fast-becoming-signature indie rock sound. Kicking off the release with a high-tempo gut-buster named 'Brianstorm', yes, 'Brian', it announced that this album would be heavier, faster, and more with a more ferocious sound that AM fans had got used to. It moved from the saturday night tales of lads about Sheffield to the stories of the world, mimetic of their global appeal and takeover. For me, it has got to be claimed that the best songs from their debut effort are 'Brianstorm', the sensationally titled 'Fluorescent Adolescent', 'Old Yellow Bricks' and the perfect ending to a stellar album, '505' - give it to the end, trust me.
From there they toured once more and blessed this football that's called planet Earth, and if you don't know that reference then see the 'R U Mine?' video below, and then in 2009 released their next album. Humbug preceded the lads from Sheffield's headline performances at the Reading and Leeds festivals at the end of that week, promising their audience cultural capital more charttoppers, right from their singles from Humbug 'My Propeller' and 'Crying Lightning'. Alex Turner, now with a dramatically longer hairstyle, and AM drummer Matt Helders cited a ranged list of influences for it, including Hendrix, Cream, Nick Cave and The Beatles. In retrospect, although not as popular to many as their previous works and some works post-Humbug, the album is clearly one in which they explored fresh ideas, genres and lyrical and musical themes. Thus it led to new sounds and vibes that can be heard on their later albums Suck It And See (2011)and AM (2013).
Suck It And See arguably moved away from darker, less popular Humbug and disseminated more of a pop/indie feel. It knocked Lady Gaga off of her charttopping perch and includes singles such as 'Don't Sit Down 'Cause I Moved Your Chair', 'The Hellcat Spangled Shalalala', 'Suck It And See' and 'Black Treacle', with the former showing their heaviest side and the eponymous song exemplifying the Arctic Monkeys' soft rock side.
'Simmer down and pucker up'. AM, their latest album to date, landed in 2013 and Alex Turner revealed to DJ Zane Lowe in an interview that the magnificently simple album title was influenced by Velvet Underground's 1985 compilation album VU. AM, twenty eight years later, packs a punch and blurs rock with hip-hop vibes. Critically acclaimed, it brings back a side of Arctic Monkeys that many hoped to hear, refreshing it with some purely fantastic sounds. Alex Turner's slowly seductive, soothing tones welcome us to the show with the phenominal record 'Do I Wanna Know?' - which is directly below and is my favourite of all of their records. With this, along with tumultuous 'R U Mine?' (second below, and note the frontman's quiff), Turner and his noisy northerners demonstrated their expert and radical lyrical and rhythmic brilliance. Matt Mason of Q magazine noted that AM reaffirms them as sounding like the best band that Britain has to offer the world. Thanks to the aforementioned songs, plus the likes of 'Why Do You Only Call Me When You're High?', 'Snap Out Of It', 'Arabella' - an exceptionally lyrical number - and 'Knee Socks', AM won the Monkeys the British Album of the Year and Best British Group - affirming them into legends as they surpassed being equal with Coldplay and Manic Street Preachers by now having done that specific 'double' three times. It also was nominated as Q's and NME's best album of the year, as well as being placed in other publications top 5 (Mojo, Time Out, Digital Spy) and top 10 albums of the year (Rolling Stone for example).
If you're up for crawling out from you're rock, while you're at it check out Royal Blood's debut album. It's conveniently titled Royal Blood, and they're an incredibly duo with some sensational and groundbreaking rock songs such as 'Figure It Out', 'Little Monster', 'Loose Change', 'Out Of The Black' and 'Ten Tonne Skeleton'.
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