This week I’ll be taking a look at Artic Monkeys' debut album – Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not. In case you know absolutely nothing about the band, here is a little synopsis: The band’s first single topped the U.K. singles charts and their U.K. debut album outsold the rest of their fellow bands including the U.K. Top 20 combined; as in, take ranks 2 – 20 and add their sales together…Arctic Monkeys win hands down. That’s an impressive stat to boast no matter who you are but in the end it is exactly just that: a statistic.
I will be frank with everyone who reads this vignette; I imagined, before having listened to the album, that I would begin this review with blurbs like,
“Does anyone want to buy a 1999 Ford Mustang? I am selling mine to move to Sheffield and erect an Arctic Monkeys temple, a la the Who’s Tommy, to help spread the word of the Arctic Ones.”
I have to say it is a shame I don’t feel that way, because that is top-notch, quality journalism; as you can see, a good journalist will find a way to include whatever he wants to include. Now, don’t get me wrong, I am by no means saying that the Arctic Monkeys album is a bad one. Are they the next Oasis, as some people are saying? No, they are not. Are they the next Strokes? Maybe, and that is a questionable maybe.
The album suffers from what I will now refer to as “Hit Single Syndrome” or H.S.S for shorts. H.S.S is the phenomenon that occurs when a song does really well, so well that the entire rest of the album must follow that exact format in hopes of maintaining appeal with those who liked the single--and it worked. The album sounds a lot like the single, which is a good song to its merit, and those who liked it, went out and bought the crap out of their album. Everyone made a lot of money, except probably the Arctic Monkeys, and everyone is happy, right? Not always the case. The songs are hardly distinguishable from each other if you tune out the lyrics they are singing.
Article comments
1 - Michael J. West
Are they the next Strokes? Maybe, and that is a questionable maybe.
And an even more questionable aspiration.
2 - Ryan C. Seay
And an even more questionable aspiration.
I'd agree with you there, Mike. People have alikened them to The Strokes, though. I wonder how they feel about that?
3 - DJRadiohead
I am anxious to hear the album. I am afraid the hype might have already killed them for me. There is almost no way they can be that brilliant.
4 - Mark Saleski
i saw a video of them and can (sort of) see where The Strokes parallel comes in. though i think you've got to mix in a little Gang of Four.
not bad, though not really top 100 either.
5 - DJRadiohead
I am willing to believe Top 100 is possible, it's Top 10 I am having trouble buying into right now.
6 - Christopher Rose
The Arctic Monkeys ARE really good but obviously all the hype surrounding them isn't doing them any favours going forward.
Their story is a little more interesting than it might at first seem; all this apparent immediate success was created by the group, or their advisors, making tracks available online through bittorrent and other groovy places like pandora.
A huge virtual buzz was created long before they released any stuff commercially. They are an internet spawned success in a way and on a scale I personally have not noticed before.
7 - Connie Phillips
Editor's note: This work of yours now has another venue for success - and more eyes - at the Advance.net Web sites, a site affiliated with about 12 newspapers.
One such site is here.
8 - Brian Moseley
I noticed "the Monkeys" while eating a sandwich in a subshop and reading Billboard magazine.
True there was a lot of hype behind them, but it was well deserved.
I actually bought this album after having heard not one of their songs, completely blind. I have never bought an album purely by hearsay before. (Actually I don’t really ever buy albums, I download).
I listened to "Whatever People Say" straight through and was blown away. You could hear me singing my praise over the mountaintops.
This is by far the best album I have heard this year.
Ever song is amazing. The lyrics are insane, the beats are better, and all this form a 19yr old kid who has sold out every show he has ever played after signing.
The Arctic Monkeys are monumental. This critic is right, Oasis they aren’t, they are better. Whether they get the kind of radio play or fanfare that Oasis received is unknown, but what is known is they are the most rocking thing to come from the UK since fish an chips.
Don't take this critic's advice. buy (or dl) the album. Especially the song "Still Take You Home".
if you don’t start dancing like an idiot, then you must not have a pulse.