Favourite Worst Nightmare - Arctic Monkeys > Reviews > Average hypemare

Author's product rating:   

Originality	Average
Lyrics	Standard
Quality and consistency of tracks	Mixed
How does it compare to the artist's other releases	Unmemorable
Value for Money	Satisfactory

Advantages:	The last 3 songs
Disadvantages:	Everything else is average

Recommend to potential buyers:

no

Full review

On the back of "Whatever People Say I Am, I'm Not" which included the monster smash of last years "I bet you look good (on the dance floor)" the Arctic monkeys gained a mass following in the UK. This following lead to them smashing records for fast selling debut album and most songs in the top 200 (a pretty artificial record for now I feel) and on the back of this hype I went out and bought this album.

Sadly I feel they mistitled the albu, and it should have had a title along the lines of "Average Hypemare", but hey it'll make a good birthday present for someone I presume. Now if you look in the media as a whole they seem to be rating the Arctic Monkeys as the best thing in music since the guitar was invented, this generations beatles or Oasis if you would.

I'll start the review the casing, a "3-part-card-fold-out-thingy" a random inlay booklet with pointless and irrelavant pictures and the only details are on the back of the book. A song list (also found on the case) and credit as well as the words "Thank you"...but not addressed at anyone (no "Thank you for following us" or anything like that).

I should have recognised from this alone that it wasn't going to be a modern classic, alas I fell for the hype, and paid the £6.99 asking price, walked home and whacked it in my X-box to listen to.

...And here I get onto the actual review of the CD. The opening track, and first (and current) single from the album, "Brianstorm" opens the nightmare (still prefer hypemare myself). Opening like a trainwreck of a drum carrying freitghtrain and a guitar carrying one. The singing when it comes in is acceptable, but not upto the standards of much of the original album the lyrics also follow this description. Despite the song having it's moments overall it seems like average song, thats been cut off before it's been allowed to do anything than show the band have learned to play guitar faster than they did in the past. 5/10

"Teddy picker" is the second track from the album and I'll be the first to say I love the title. The song opens decently with some good guitar riffs but sadly the vocals seemed to have slipped this time and the lyrics despite being alright don't compare with the likes of Oasis' "Wonderwall". Again the song strikes me as being too short and just not very good, Yes it's acceptable, but acceptable and good aren't the same thing. 5/10

"D is for dangerous" This song has improved vocals over the previous track, which is also the track where the album name comes from, so the lyrics are fairly decent, and the guitar playing is alright but the song is by far too short (2:16 is to short for a pop or even indie song unless it's filler...). 4/10

"Balaclava" A start that I actually like, but it again doesn't sound as amazing as the band are meant to be, however it sounds like the singer (Alex Turner) is hitting the vocals perfectly, the guitar however seems to be drowning him out far too often. Easily the best track so far. 6/10

"Fluorescent addlescent" this to me looks like a CKY title (big CKY fan...if the song sounds like CKY then the song would likely get a 10/10 from me), sadly it doesn't sound like CKY. An enjoyable musical intro but the vocals don't seem as good as the previous song's again it's really acceptable music, but the band of "now" having a full album of acceptable songs perhaps means their debut was a fluke, i'm not sure. 6/10

"Only ones who know" The first track to break the 3 minute barrier (3:02) something only 6 songs on the entire album manage to do (only three go over 3:15 short album huh?)

Anyway onto the song, another nice opening...maybe a good song at last...nice opening lyrics too (things look promising) vocals sound pleasant as well...as does the chorus. But do amazing bands get kudos for "nice"? The song is much slower than the others (explaining why it's more than 3 mins long) . IMO this is a "nice song" nothing more, nothing less. 6/10

"Do me a favour"...what turn the CD off?..I'd love to but I'm a critic and thus thats not allowed, bad Chilly chimps...no banana's today.

The first time I've tapped me toes so far, so it did get a good reaction when it started but sadly it goes doesn hill rather fast and despite bursts of brilliance it's intwined with cans of crap in places. A real mixed bag of a song, but a step in the right direction, it Could have been great but sadly it's not. 7/10

"This house is a circus", Starting up tempo and reminds me for a flighting second of how good "I bet you look good on the dance floor" was, before that second gets ripped away from me. The song is bareable and the band do seem to actually function like a band who know what their doing (about time really) and the song does fit together musically, but it's not a great song. 7/10

"If you were there, beware" An acceptable guitar intro to begin proceedings but we've heard that style of intro many times before. This song is the longest on the album (4:34) So I was anticipating to see a song that showcases the bands true talent (whcih I wont deny they have). But again everything just sounds average and okay (maybe a lil abover average I guess) but not amazing and fantastic or orgasmic. I do really like the bridge though, but a bridge can not make an average song great.
7/10

"The bad thing"..back under 3 mins...thats a bad thing imo...
...Starting off withe the vocals guitar and lyrics all sounding rather good at last and the track goes back to the bands true indie roots (yay). A really enjoyable track at last, shame is it's kinda short, and reminds me of "Boxing champ" from the Kaiser cheif's album "Yours truly angry mob" which should also have been longer.
8/10

"Old yellow bricks" Good intro and vocals and it's a shame it's taken until track 11 for them to get everything right. If the album started with the previous song and carried on in this vein I would be able to see what the hype was about, sadly this has come too late in the day to save the album. A song where everything fits together perfectly well. 9/10

"505" An organ based opening before Turner's vocals kick in and the chorus starts with the best lyrics of the whole album:
"I'm going back to 505,
If its a 7 hour flight or a 45 minute drive,
In my imagination you're waiting lying on your side,
With your hands between your thighs,"

Songs of this quality finally show the bands true ability and talent, but it leaves the whole album open to questions of why's there so little of this sort of music on the album? But well done boys for a fantastic song.

Overall..."hypemare" and "average" both spring to mind, if you like yorkshire based indie music, I'd go with the Kaiser chiefs album personally (I own both) as it's better overall. This seems littered with short fillers until near the end when it become unsaveable.