It all begins with this album. The Arctic Monkeys ” Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not” is considered one of the greatest albums of all time but you can’t help but appreciate how special this album truly is. It’s that good! And definitely worth owning!
Click here to purchase the Arctic Monkeys “Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not” on Amazon
BAND: Arctic Monkeys
ALBUM: Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not
DURATION: 13 Songs (42 Minutes)
RELEASE DATE: January 23,2006
1 View from the Afternoon
2 I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor
3 Fake Tales of San Francisco
4 Dancing Shoes
5 You Probably Couldn’t See for the Lights But You Were Staring
6 Still Take You Home
7 Riot Van
8 Red Light Indicates Doors Are Secured
9 Mardy Bum
10 Perhaps Vampires Is a Bit Strong But
11 When the Sun Goes Down
12 From the Ritz to the Rubble
13 Certain Romance
You probably read the story of the amazing debut of the Sheffield, England rock band Arctic Monkeys.
The band consists of lead vocalist/guitarist Alex Turner, Jamie Cook (guitar/keyboards), Nick O’Malley (bass guitar/back vocals) and Matt Helders (drums/back vocals).
How this band came out of nowhere and how their album “Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not” became the biggest selling debut album in British music history. The album sold over 360,000 copies in its first week and continues to be the fastest selling debut album by a band in the UK. And in the US, it became the fastest-selling indie record label debut album in history.
Needless to say, the album was voted no. 371 in Rolling Stone magazine’s “500 Greatest Albums of All Time”, no. 30 in the publication’s “100 Best Debut Albums of All Time” and no. 19 in NME’s “500 Greatest Albums of All Time”.
And when it comes to Arctic Monkey’s music, I listen to their studio albums and live album often but similar to British bands such as Radiohead and even Blur, Arctic Monkeys is a rock band that shouldn’t be defined by how their album sounds, because with each album release, especially for recent music, and there is high expectation for their upcoming seventh album to be released on Oct. 21st titled “The Car”.
I figured that as I look forward to the new album, why not review the album that made this band famous.
“Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not” kicks off with “The View from the Afternoon”. The first track alone just showcases the wonderful guitar playing and showcases the differences from Arctic Monkeys from their peers.
The lyrics are catchy with the “Anticipation has a habit to set you up for disappointment in evening entertainment but tonight there’ll be some love”. But the music video seeing a drummer jamming day and night. A heavy hitting song and a great way to start off the album. And just think, the band considered the song to be released as their third single but switched gears to work on a five song EP.
The next track is the first single from the album titled “I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor”. Another heavy hitting track and you have to love the back vocals. A favorite of a lot of people including myself, it’s a song I’ve listened to a million times and it never gets old. Love the guitar, bass and percussion for this song!
NME has the song at no. 7 of “500 Greatest Songs of All Time”.
The next song “Fake Tales of San Francisco was a radio-only single in the US. A catchy rock track about the band being compared to other bands and how other bands tried to be like other bands and portray a fake image. And how as a band, they need to stay with their roots. Before they were popular, Arctic Monkeys used to play covers of The White Stripes and The Strokes.
The fourth track is “Dancing Shoes” and another song I love for the guitars. A rockin’ track and upbeat track!
The fifth track is “You Probably Couldn’t See for the Lights but You Were Staring Straight at Me” and I guess you can call it a love song or the guys digging a girl!
The sixth track “Still Take You Home” about a digging a woman who is popular or beautiful and a fun rock track that you can’t help but find the lyrics humorous. “I fancy you with a passion. You’re a Topshop princess, a rockstar too. But you’re a fad, you’re a fashion. And I’m having a job trying to talk to you. But it’s alright Yeah, I’ll put it on one side. ‘Cause everybody’s looking. You’ve got control of everyone’s eyes, including mine”.
The seventh track is “Riot Van” and is a slower tempo track about people taunting the police and being arrested and put into a riot van.
The eighth track is “Red Light Indicates Doors Are Secured” and the lyrics are interesting as it tells a story of a possible experience at a restaurant or bar and the way it’s written, it’s a cool song with a mesmerizing bass but a song that shows the wonderful writing of Alex Turner.
The ninth track “Mardy Bum” is a song about the dumb arguments in a relationship and Turner’s writing is something many people can identify with, “And yeah I’m sorry I was late. But I missed the train. And then the traffic was a state. And I can’t be arsed to carry on in this debate that reoccurs,. Oh, when you say I don’t care. But of course I do, yeah, I clearly do!”.
Musically it’s one of the fun and fascinating songs that’s not as heavy hitting but I Iike this track a lot.
The tenth track is “Perhaps Vampires Is A Bit Strong But…” and my impression of this song originally was that it was about journalists and music critics who pretend to be supportive of the band but in truth, think they will fail”. The band knows they are being exploited for these “vampires” gain. But in interviews, Turner said it was about the people of their hometown of Sheffield and their lack of support for the band. Another favorite track of mine on the album. Love the music and the breaks, guitars and percussion.
The eleventh track is the second single off the album titled “When The Sun Goes Down” and the song and the music video is a woman associating with scum. In the music video, a woman is being pimped. And Turner has said the song is about prostitution in the Neepsend district of Sheffield.
The 12th track “From the Ritz to the Rubble” and once again, the lyrics are really well-written and rock track about going out at night, dealing with bouncers, getting drunk and not making any sense into the morning.
The final track on the album is “A Certain Romance” and a song about youth. Many say it’s about the “Chav” (anti-social lower class) subculture in Britain. And these Chav’s are known for dressing in sportswear and its a stereotype. But Turner’s lyrics is how he grew up with friends who are part of that culture and how he doesn’t judge them or think he’s any better than them.
Now I started typing this review about 6:00 p.m. and it’s almost midnight. I found myself wanting to listen to a lot of their albums and their music is just so awesome, the lyrics have meaning. There are too many bands who focus on one side of things, where you have awesome music but crappy lyrics (or simple lyrics just written in order to rhyme). This is not the case of Arctic Monkeys. You can look at every track and the lyrics, it’s just like writing a blog post, a short story and making a song of it. And the music that goes into it is awesome, but the words behind the songs have so much meaning.
The songs on this album are like poetry. Seriously! There are some really well-written words for the songs and it’s one thing to appreciate the music and how the Arctic Monkeys are a heavy hitting band with awesome guitars, drumming and bass but the lyrics takes these songs to a different level.
It goes to show how the songs are well-appreciated and why “Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not” was so successful and critically acclaimed.
It’s a damn great album! A masterpiece and just to think, this is when the band members were young and just doing their thing. It’s pretty fascinating to see how their music changes as they grow older and become even more successful not just in the UK but also the US.
But it all begins with this album. The Arctic Monkeys ” Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not” is considered one of the greatest albums of all time but you can’t help but appreciate how special this album truly is. It’s that good! And definitely worth owning!
Click here to purchase the Arctic Monkeys “Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not” on Amazon
