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ARCTIC MONKEYS -
READER
COMMENTS
WHATEVER
YOU SAY I AM, THAT'S WHAT I'M NOT (2006)
Rob Eustace - Hope you're well, read your Arctic
Monkeys review this week having personally ignored them and then stumbled upon
them by chance!!!!
I heard the hype, all the crap, the saviors, the future, guitars bought for
Xmas, hours of dedication etc etc. As a result I deliberately steered clear of
this band until I happened upon a track playing on a jukebox one evening and was
intrigued enough to get off my stool and wander over to check the machine
display.
Strangely enough it was the vocal that grabbed me, this isn't a talented singer
for sure, but its a distinctive regional tone with no pretence, laid back, a
little tongue in cheek even. Vocalists are key for me, I can live with a below
par guitarist but if I don't like the voice I generally don't like the band.
Freshness works for me, I'm thinking Ian Dury, Hugh Cornwell (Stranglers), Marc
Bolan, Bryan Ferry, Morrissey, Jarvis Cocker. By the same token I don't much
care much for Ian Brown's whine, Liam Gallagher's snarl, or David Sylvain or
Martin Rossiter's respective Bryan Ferry or Morrissey routines.
So the Yorkshire twang doesn't offend me the way it does others!!! but its more
than that. I think I hear a little magic in places amongst the obligatory over
the top riffs that litter that album. It appears that you can't be a credible
guitar band in the UK nowadays unless you crank up those guitars, I've always
felt the Boo Radleys suffered from Martin Carr's need to do the same. I
generally suspect there is a great little band here once you get over the hype.
They ain't world beaters and their not in the same league as the classic artists
they are being compared too, but I think they're a tight little band with big
potential. The next album is gonna be critical, but I think they have an edge
over many of the current crop of jangly bands, watch this space I guess.
Ian's Music Reviews - Great to hear from you again!
Yes, it's very hard to separate the Arctic Monkeys from the hype. Luckily for
you you first heard them by chance on the jukebox, so your first impression is a
more accurate one than mine was. I'm sure my review comes off as being
hyper-critical of this young band, but the British music press was way off the
mark on this one. The Arctic Monkeys are a young band whose best years are ahead
of them. Unfortunately, by the time they really start to hit their stride nobody
will care about the group anymore. I'm quite certain that we'll see a major
backlash by the time the second album gets released, no matter how good or bad
it happens to be. In this sense, the hype is going to be a negative thing for
the band in the long run.
I'm afraid I just don't like the singer's voice at all. Vocalists are key for me
as well, which is why I'm not too keen on this group. Perhaps the "Yorkshire
twang" doesn't translate very well on this side of the Atlantic, I don't know.
Despite the fact that the Arctic Monkeys have been heavily promoted in Canada
(and the U.S.) they aren't really doing anything here in terms of sales or
overall excitement. They got a lot of airplay here in January, and the radio
stations were really pushing them as "the next big thing," but nothing really
happened. As a result, airplay is almost non-existent now, and my feeling is
that these guys will never crack the market stateside. Sure, they have a small
cult following, but that's about the extend of it. Mind you, Americans have
notoriously bad taste in music, so I guess you can interpret the band's poor
sales in North America any way you want to.
I guess for me the biggest problem I have with the Arctic Monkeys is their
apparent inability to write a good song. There are scads of good musical ideas
to be found (the guitars sound great, as you mentioned), but they just don't
seem capable of piecing them together in a concise manner. Good songwriting is
partly a learned process, so it's possible that the songs will get better in the
future, but in my view that's just another reason why the band isn't ready to
hit it big yet.
Hope all is going well with you too. Things have been pretty hectic around here
lately, but all in all I can't complain too much. I'm at home sick today, so
I've finally had the chance to catch up on my emails!
Arctic Monkeys Page
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