Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not (Digital Album)

by

Arctic Monkeys

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The Arctic Monkeys have rocketed to the top of the UK music scene on the basis on a couple of great singles, and when their debut album was released a few weeks ago, it broke the record of the one-week sales. NME declared "Artic Monkeys have delivered a Definitely Maybe" (referring to Oasis' debut album). Not so fast...

"Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not" (13 tracks, 41 min.) brings basically a great bar band delivering mostly up-tempo songs about the life of 19 and 20 yr. olds (which is what the band members are). Track 2 "I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor" is the break-out single and an irresitable 3 min. blast of great music. While the first half of the album staggers a bit, the second half truly takes off with the pensive "Riot Van", followed by the best track of all, "Red Light Indicates Doors Are Secured", a slightly reggae-flavored track that delights and delivers. Other stand-outs follow: "Mardy Hum" is a mellow singalong, and "Perhaps Vampires Is A Bit Strong But..." is the meatiest track of all. "When The Sun Goes Down" is the other attention-grabbing single, quite good.

In all, this is quite a good album. But to say that this equals the towering "Definitely Maybe" does disservice to Arctic Monkeys. Let these guys (kids, really) develop and let's see where they go from here.

I managed to miss the hype. Maybe it has something to do with not living in England, or not being that interested in MP3 file sharing. Instead, I bought this CD based largely on reviews comparing the Arctic Monkeys to bands like Oasis, or Franz Ferdinand.

Maybe that was a mistake? This band doesn't remind me at all of those bands. Rather than the Beatles-inspired hard rock melodies of Oasis, Arctic Monkeys are nearly all rythmn section outside of the musical bridges, which are closer to Gang of Four, but lack the sparceness and originality that made that band interesting to me. Occasionally the singing will stumble near a pleasing tune, but then the vocalist seems to get bored, and he's off on some improvisation.

The saving grace of this band are the lyrics, which I find to be quite witty. But to me it's not enough. Folks interested in the "not quite singing clever lyrics" genre would do better with Art Brut.