The Arctic Monkeys…the phenomenon that is. When they released “Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not”, the music world took to them like a duck to water, breaking all sorts of records for debut selling albums etc. etc…now comes, of course, the difficult second album.
“Favourite Worst Nightmare” was released in April this year on Domino Records, and the whole world were waiting on it…
The first sounds we heard from it was a month earlier with the release of the single “Brianstorm” that was first debuted on Zane Lowe’s Radio 1 show…I was listening at the time at he ‘bigged’ it up as if it was the saviour of world hunger and global warming. Was he right? Well, from a musical point of view, he couldn’t have been far off. A 3-minute piece of music, face-paced, clever lyrics, just how rock music should be. It was certainly a reassurance and relief to many that the debut album wasn’t to be the preverbial flash-in-the-pan.
So other than the debut single, there are another
11 tracks on the album. “Teddy Picker” is an instantly catchy tune; a punchy riff with Alex Turner yet again showing his “Indie-Poet Laureate” skills, that have that deft, under-lying touch of pessimism –“She saw it and she grabbed it and it wasn't what it seemed; The kids all dream of making it, whatever that means.”
“D is for Dangerous” is, despite the obvious lack of an identical name, the title track of the album (on the basis that it regular says “Your favourite worst nightmare”) and again shows a dark side to the band that ultimately wasn’t there eighteen months ago…oh and they’ve thrown in a couple more swear words into the lyrics just to prove that point!
Along with “Balaclava”, the opening four tracks show without question that the band have come along louder, harder and faster than before, yet still been able to perfect what they were good at during “Whatever People Say I Am” – catchy music, witty lyrics that have put everyday speech into a cracking rhythm, and generally good rock music.
Then comes along “Fluorescent Adolescent” – a song seemingly along the lines of “Mardy Bum” from the debut album; quieter and along an acoustic line yet the kind of song that’ll get 70,000 people chanting away at festivals during the summer.
“Only Ones Who Know” then shows a mellower, matured side to the Arctic Monkeys and everything they’ve shown before. Emotional music with just Turner and his guitar playing through your speakers. At the end of the album; “505” has similar nuances that leave the listener eerily wanting more.
"Do Me A Favour" and "This House Is A Circus" were a personal favourites of mine on first listen...quick verses, and choruses bursting with even more energy. Music for my palate, that is spot on.
Trying to break this review down in “tracks to look out for” and “ones to avoid” is certainly weighing for the former…granted on first listen, tracks such as “If You Were There, Beware” and “The Bad Thing” can go slightly unappreciated and leave people thinking, “yeah the album’s good, but it’s not as good as the debut outing." However, people like that will have listened to it once, hoping that the answers to all of life’s questions were there, not got them all, and then stuck it in the CD rack to gather dust for several months. Don’t follow that trend. The basic recommendation is that this album will take a couple more listens that “Whatever People Say I Am”, but don’t discredit it.
The reason for it is that the sound is different. It’s darker and harder than before, and not as ‘radio-friendly’, the increase in the number of expletives proves that! The band have realised instantly that following the NME-esque type band of producing a generic second album to suit the DJ’s, reviewers and record company owners will quite simply brand them with the career-ending tag of “boring”, “just like all the other bands out there” or perhaps even “sellouts”.
But baring that in mind, it’s still the Arctic Monkeys that we know and love. With this album they’re more likely to gain more new fans than lose old ones, and surely that’s the plan for any band out there. Alex Turner and Co. have shown to the world that what they produced eighteen months ago wasn’t a fluke. “Favourite Worst Nightmare” has all but assured the band that in five years time we’ll be talking about the band in the same mode how people chatted about Oasis after “What’s The Story (Morning Glory)” followed “Definitely Maybe” – the world’s best band…all they’ve got to do now is do the REALLY hard bit that some would argue Oasis failed to do…make that difficult third album!!
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Advantages: A couple of pretty decent tracks, stylistically not a bad album. Disadvantages: The tracks are often incredibly lacklustre, the music lacks passion.
Advantages: A couple of pretty decent tracks, stylistically not a bad album. Disadvantages: The tracks are often incredibly lacklustre, the music lacks passion.
![Favourite Worst Nightmare [VINYL] - Arctic Monkeys](http://picnica.ciao.com/uk/89901054.jpg "Favourite Worst Nightmare [VINYL] - Arctic Monkeys")
Jul 8th, 2007
exceptional by (5%):
very helpful by (95%):
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