MUSIC REVIEWS
Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not
David Allun Jones
It seems with each new season the British press are calling some new band the act that will change your life. The latest hubbub surrounds the Arctic Monkeys, an English indie rock quartet, who have sent the UK music industry into a frenzy with their fan-approved, grassroots rags-to-riches story and record breaking commercial impact. Gaining fame through downloaded demos and word-of-mouth, the Monkeys independent devotion have made them a favorite amongst hipsters and critics alike, but all the praise has also led to the expected backlash from folks turned off by such obsessive adoration. The pressure is now on their recently released American debut, Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not to prove that the massive hype is justified.
Most people came to know Arctic Monkeys through 2005’s UK chart-topping singles “I Bet You Look Good On The Dance Floor” and “When The Sun Goes Down”. The first, a punchy number about stalker-ish nightclub lust, and the second, a folksy acoustic ballad and punk funk rocker centered on the England prostitution scene both involved ever-changing sound scapes, flashy exuberance and colorful observations. Brimming full of life and endless possibilities, it’s not the band that’s really all that innovative (their sound is more or less a mix-and-match of everything Brit-pop/ rock has done well over the past decade) but what they do with such familiarity that ends up so appealing.
A documentation of the always exciting goings-on of weekend partying, Whatever You Say I Am plants focus on the various situations unfolding all over the town. Like a movie, we sneak a peak into the stories of different people: The girl leaving a show early cause the “super cool” band is lame and phony attendees forging their own birthplaces (“You’re not from New York City/ You’re from Rotherham/ So get off the bandwagon/ And put down the handbook”) have her bored; the guy nervously approaching the hot girl in the room all the other guys are trying to impress (“Everybody’s trying to crack the jokes and that to make you smile/ Those that claim they’re not showing off are drowning in denial”); folks getting turned down by the bouncers (“From The Ritz to the Rubble”, “Red Lights Indicate Doors Are Secure”) while another group of cats are getting arrested just for the kicks (“Riot Van”); elsewhere couples are making up or breaking up. Such all-too-familiar scenarios make the music so easily identifiable, a lack of a connection would mean you don’t go out enough or found lead singer Alex Turner’s thick English accent and strange slang too hard to decipher through.
To coincide with the swift way you’re thrown about town as a listener, the Monkeys’ hit you with a swarm of sound. Frantic and urgent is their style, riffs and melodies hitting you from every which way making it difficult not to at least succumb to one element of each song. Other moments find the band breaking through the raucous noise with a left turn into the pretty and sublime. To their credit they don’t switch up as jarringly as a three minute romp with System of A Down, but there are times when the attack is so messy and half-plotted that some tracks never reach a satisfying completeness. In the end, such mistakes keeps them from having a debut album that’s impossible to ever beat, a curse if ever there was one for someone dreaming of a lengthy career.
If the Arctic Monkeys never again reach the creative heights that do occasionally occur here, or as typical with beloved British bands, never record another album, there’s enough fresh material here to fuel a new generation of great artistry and that’s what ultimately makes Whatever I Am such an important moment in time. The band itself probably aren’t anything to get all ga-ga over, but it’s the sheer possibility of what this album could influence in the future that offers the most excitement.
