Entertainment For Lively Minds
I´m a bit late to the current Arctic Monkeys party, but
Posted by Ola Claesson on 23 June 2011 - 7:01pm.
I just want to say I think Don´t Sit Down ´Cause I´ve Moved Your Chair is a great title for a great song. Alex Turner is probably my favourite English songwriter of the last ten years.
That´s all for now.
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Arctic Monkeys
I thought the reviewer in Word 101 (Dorian Lynskey?) got them spot on. The Arctic Monkeys are half wonderful, half frustrating.
Their last album (Humbug) summed it up for me, with beautiful, timeless songs like Cornerstone vying for space with meaty, rock bollocks like Dangerous Animals.
I think they should ditch the whole Apprentices of the Stone Age schtick and embrace their obvious pop nous.
Here's Cornerstone:
Being a major fan of Queens Of
I really like Humbug. I tried to sell The Monkeys to a friend once by describing them as a pop version of Queens Of, so I was quite excited when they decided to work with Josh.
However, I do fully understand their pop fans found Humbug slightly short on melodies. In the long term it was clever of them to do something different for a change and I think Suck It And See´s combination of slightly slower AND melodies is great.
The first two albums
were brilliant, lyrically, musically and full of excitement. They lost me a bit at "Humbug" and I haven't heard the new one yet. I've said it before and it bears repeating, me and my sons can't listen to "Mardy Bum" it's just too close to home, Alex Turner must have had an interesting first 18-20 years.
Suck It and See is overproduced and overrated
I liked the Arctic Monkeys a bit at first and my mates son lent me his ipod to have a listen of their latest offering which I duly did. Was not impressed. Is this really supposed to be the future of rock and roll'cos if it is I just wanna jump into the grave with Elvis and Link Wray! This is same bland and tedious music as I have come to expect from the likes of Elbow, Kasabian, Coldplay and the like. What's it all about now? Please tell me? Is the music industry just desperate for us all to fall asleep at the first groove of a CD these days? There is no tension, no excitement, no cleverness. At least I'll get a proper dose of rock and roll at The St. Moritz Club on saturday 1st july. The Len Price Three, signed to Little Steven's Wicked Cool record label will be showing the assembled what rock and roll is really about.
Not sure if it´s supposed to be the future of rock´n´roll
But it is good pop and sometimes that´s enough. You don´t have to re-invent music to make a good album. If you prefer Elvis and Link Wray that´s fine with me, personally I don´t mind listening to either.
Elbow, Kasabian, Coldplay and AM are fairly different bands to my ears. They are peers granted, but it´s a bit like saying "music like The Jam and Dire Straits", just because they started at the same time.
Coldplay are not "proper rock´n´roll", we agree on that. But I don´t think they are even wanting to pass as a Sun Records act.
Arctic Monkeys are a damn fine pop group to me. And I can´t agree with you on "no cleverness". If Alex Turner isn´t a clever writer, then I don´t know who is.
We´ve all got our favourites, and I´m not saying Alex Turner is as good as Ray Davies and early Weller, but to me he writes in the same tradition.
Could be a question of age, of course, but I have a problem with the "proper music ended in 58/69/75" attitude some people have. Maybe one day I´ll tell someone proper music ended in 2017, but I hope not.
"Proper rock 'n' roll".
The most dispiriting phrase in the musical lexicon.
Turner looked up to The Strokes....
...and it looks as though the career is following the same arc...
They need to get off the wheel and re-invent themselves. First album excellent, a rocket up the arse of the bands around at the time; 2nd album more of the same but patchier; third album - fewer tunes, more guitars, thicker sound; fourth album - oh dear, oh dear...
Does something happen to bands when the lead characters shack up with a micro celeb? Turner and Chung = Valensi and DeCadanet? Is it the Janine theory in full effect?
They sound quite identikit now.
And lyrically, it seems like Alex Turner's just doing it by numbers. "Don't sit down 'cos I've moved your chair"? Really? Come on, kiddo, you can do better than that!
Their music used to be quite fresh and spiky and fun, but it's become increasingly rawk, which is a bit disappointing.
I loved a lot of what they came out with at first: From The Ritz..., Bigger Boys and Stolen Sweethearts, Mardy Bum. It was sweet, incredibly well-written and quite spacious and light: plenty of gaps between the instruments, nice and clattery. But as soon as I heard "Fluorescent Adolescent", I thought "oh dear - here we go". Can't stand that song, and I date my loss of interest in them from that point.
Nonsense Nonsense NONSENSE
Fluorescent Adolescent is their best song IMHO. That, and Teddy Picker, showed that they could do more than just the hammer-it-out standard rock of their debut (which, admittedly, was still pretty thrilling at the time).
It's such a shame. They're one of those bands who I root for and really want to be good. The lad Turner's got something about him, and lyrically he's capable of being mentioned in the same breath as Jarvis Cocker and Ian Dury.
Flourescent Adolescent
It's an incredibly clever affecting lyric from one so young. The worst thing about it was the video. I can't stand them vids they always do with that scouse bloke from This Is England.
This is better. Band in studio / pub. Easy. Plenty for Link Wray fans to enjoy in that guitar solo too.
I think some of the rawk is slightly tongue in cheek
Brick By Brick makes me smile with that fotball choir and rawk riff. I don´t think it´s a coincidence there just happens to be a song/album by Iggy Pop with the same title.
Alex Turner’s soundtrack…
… to Submarine is an absolute gem, with all the wit and subtlety that the Arctic Monkeys may or may not have lost. Cracking film too.
workrate
Got to give it to Alex as well - what is it 4 Arctic Monkeys albums, 1 Shadow puppets, a film soundtrack? Twice what the Stone Roses managed, and close to Oasis's whole career in half a decade or so.
Opposite
Funnily enough, I had the exact opposite view to the Word review: I think the really rocky stuff is their best, a lot of the songs on the new album leave me cold.