My CDs: 5: The Arctic Monkeys
364 words, 1 imageOK, I’ve been remiss and missed a week. I think I’ll be missing more weeks in future.
It always seemed to me that within 20 seconds of the start of the first track on The Arctic Monkeys’ Whatever People Say I am, That’s What I’m Not, you know whether it’s for you. A fairly basic punky backing starts it off, then the voice of a hoodie from a South Yorkshire sink estate announces:
ANTICIPATION HAS A TENDENCY TO SET YOU UP!
FOR DISAPPOINTMENT IN NIGHTTIME ENTERTAINMENT BUT!
TONIGHT THERE’LL BE SOME LOVE
TONIGHT THERE’LL BE A RUCKUS, YEAH, REGARDLESS OF WHAT’S COME BEFORE
… and you either fall in love with it there and then (as I did), or you don’t.
But let’s face it, if you’ve not already played the Arctic Monkeys’ first album to death, there’s no getting through to you. So rather than go on and on, I’ll quote another fine lyric at you, then be on my merry way.
From “Red Light Indicates Doors Are Secured”, a song about getting a taxi home after a night pubbing:
Ask if we can have six in, if not we’ll have to have 2
You’re coming up our end aren’t you? So I’ll get one with you.
Oh won’t he let us have six in? Especially not with the food.
He could’ve just told us no though, he di’nt have to be rude.See her in the green dress? She talked to me at the bar.
How come its already two pound fifty? We’ve only gone about a yard.
Di’nt you see she were gorgeous, she was beyond belief!
But this lad at the side drinking a Smirnoff Ice came and paid for her tropical Reef.
Despite all this brilliance, I wasn’t inspired to buy the follow up. Fickle, me.
Edit: This is another album I’d been enjoying for a while as an MP3, but bought on CD when it came time to blog about it and I realised I didn’t ‘own’ it. Some time after getting the CD, I remembered that in fact, I’d paid to download those MP3s legally from bleep.com, so now I ‘own’ it twice. What a mess. At least I got some nice photographs of South Yorkshire people on a chavvy night out in the booklet.
July 9th, 2008 at 20:52
The second album is good but not as good. I think their first album is superb, you’ve inspired me to re-listen to it this afternoon. Lyrically they’re excellent, I also like the way the album tells the story of a Saturday night out