Rock, Metal

Arctic Monkeys - Humbug (2009)

2009-10-10T11:23:00Z

Arctic Monkeys - Humbug (2009)


01. My Propeller 
02. Crying Lightning 
03. Dangerous Animals 
04. Secret Door 
05. Potion Approaching 
06. Fire And The Thud 
07. Cornerstone 
08. Dance Little Liar 
09. Pretty Visitors 
10. The Jeweller's Hands

Personnel:
    Alex Turner - lead vocals, lead and rhythm guitar
    Jamie Cook - lead and rhythm guitar; organ on "Pretty Visitors"
    Nick O'Malley - bass guitar, backing vocals
    Matt Helders - drums, vocals

Facing the third album blues, the Arctic Monkeys turned to Josh Homme, the Queens of the Stone Age mastermind renowned for his collaborations but heretofore untested as a producer. On first glance, it's a peculiar pair -- the heirs of Paul Weller meet the heavy desert mystic -- but this isn't a team of equals, it's a big brother helping his little siblings go wayward and get weird. Homme doesn't imprint his own views on the Monkeys but encourages them to follow their strange instincts, whether it's a Nick Cave obsession or the inclination to emphasize atmosphere over energy. Wading into the murk of Humbug it becomes clear that the common ground between the Monkeys and Homme is the actual act of making music, the pleasure of not knowing what comes next when an entire band is drifting inside a zone. Since so much of Humbug is about its process, it's not always immediately accessible or pleasurable to an outside listener, nor is it quite the thickly colored freakout Homme's presence suggests. The Monkeys still favor angular riffs and clenched rhythms, constructing tightly framed vignettes not widescreen epics, but they're working with a darker palette and creating vaguely abstract compositions, sensibilities that extend to Alex Turner's words too, as he trades keen detail for vivid scrawled impressions. Every element of the album reflects a band testing its limits, seeing where they could -- not necessarily will -- go next; it's a voyage through territory that's new to them as musicians (which doesn't necessarily mean that it's also new to their audience), offering at a peek at what lies beyond via three songs cut after the desert sessions, songs informed by what they learned during their sojourn with Homme. This trio of tunes, highlighted by "Cornerstone," aren't as darkly as evocative as the rest of the dense, gnarled Humbug but they're among the best songs the album has to offer suggesting that the record may mean more in the long-term that it does on its own. Nevertheless, Humbug makes two things clear: Arctic Monkeys are serious about being in a band, about making music, and they are the first major British band in generations unencumbered by fear or spite for America. Humbug was not done with hopes of breaking the American market or reacting spitefully against it, it is solely about big, loud, dark noise. No wonder Josh Homme sensed he had a band of little brothers in Arctic Monkeys. --- Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide

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Arctic Monkeys - Suck It And See [2011]

2011-07-30T08:22:24Z

Arctic Monkeys - Suck It And See [2011]


1. She's Thunderstorms
2. Black Treacle
3. Brick by Brick
4. The Hellcat Spangled Shalalala			play
5. Don't Sit Down 'Cause I've Moved Your Chair
6. Library Pictures
7. All My Own Stunts
8. Reckless Serenade
9. Piledriver Waltz					play
10. Love Is a Laserquest
11. Suck It and See
12. That's Where You're Wrong

Personnel
    Alex Turner – lead vocals, guitar
    Jamie Cook – guitar
    Nick O'Malley – bass, backing vocals
    Matt Helders – drums, backing vocals, lead vocals on "Brick by Brick"
    Josh Homme – backing vocals on "All My Own Stunts"

These days Arctic Monkeys are not a band singing songs about "f***ing taxi ranks", as frontman Alex Turner quipped recently. They made their last record, 2009’s bizarre Britpop/stoner hybrid Humbug, in a desert. One member, the drummer no less, has the mobile telephone number of one P Diddy. And the singer – a young man who, on arrival, did so much to quench British pop’s obsession with the empty idea that is ‘the working-class hero’ – now writes lyrics like, "Library pictures, of the quickening canoe / The first of its kind to get to the moon": a couplet more befitting Gandalf the Grey than it is Liam Gallagher.

Of course, this sort of buffoonery is to be encouraged. Still, it’s hard not to want the band’s fourth record to embrace the unconventional more than it actually does. Initial signs are promising. Many of the song titles sound like they were conceived by a drunk Butlins Redcoat. One is called Love Is a Lazerquest; another, Don’t Sit Down ‘Cause I’ve Moved Your Chair (one can only hope its sister song, I’ve Got a Whoopee Cushion and I’m Not Afraid to Use It, turns up as a B side). But for the largest part, Suck It and See isn’t the stubborn, radio unfriendly career swerve that Humbug proved to be.

If anything, it’s a halfway house between where many expected them to be going, and where they were. On one hand, it marks the return of actual tunes (Reckless Serenade, the hard-edged title-track) – stuff that you can hum – as well as, not taxi ranks per se, but kitchen sink musing about "chin-chewing" cokeheads (Black Treacle) and "damsel-patterned alleys, where you go for a smoke" (All My Own Stunts), two songs that will be embraced by anyone fannish about their early work. On the other, there’s now an oblique Dylan-esque romanticism to many of Turner’s lyrics and tunes (the title and contents of opener She’s Thunderstorms is lovely), few of which suggest their future as karaoke staples and some of which prefer groove, not just over melody but all other constructs of song. They fit a mould, but it’s an askew, mismade one.

If you were enjoying the band’s joyride into the weird, Suck It and See is a record that may disappoint in its convention. Personally it makes me wish they’d just given a chorus or two to Diddy and be done with it. But while the reins of pomp have certainly been reined in somewhat, it’s hard to shake the suspicion that Suck It and See is further evidence that Arctic Monkeys are still Britain’s best guitar band – albeit one that’d be even better if they ever decide to truly lunge into the unknown. ---James McMahon, BBC Review

Dobry zespół poznaje się po tym, że podczas nagrywania kolejnego materiału, nie podąża utartymi przez siebie szlakami. Takim jest właśnie Arctic Monkeys, którego członkowie na każdej swojej płycie oferują słuchaczom coś zupełnie innego. Na „Suck It And See” wyraźnie widzimy, że „Małpki” dorosły i mają nam jeszcze trochę do zaoferowania.

Odwieczną bolączką muzyków (w ogóle wszystkich twórców i artystów), jest udowodnienie po fantastycznym początku swojej wartości podczas kolejnych projektów. Najlepsi potrafią powtórzyć sukces debiutu i utrzymać pozycję zdobytą na samym początku. Arctic Monkeys nie dość, że swoją jakość potwierdzili na drugim albumie, to dokonali tego również na trzecim… i tym najnowszym czwartym, zatytułowanym „Suck And See”, który wydaje się być kontynuacją swojego poprzednika. „Humbug”, bo o nim mowa, wyprodukowany przez Josha Homme’a, ujawnił zupełnie inne oblicze chłopaków z Sheffield i stanowił pewnego rodzaju rozbrat z klasycznym indie-rockowym brzmieniem, które charakteryzowało AM na samym początku. Swoistym symbolem owej przemiany była nowa długa fryzura Alexa Turnera, która zastąpiła stara dobrą grzywkę.

Pomimo tego, iż Josh Homme już nie odpowiada za produkcję nowego albumu, to wyraźnie słychać na nim wpływ wokalisty Qeens Of The Stone Age. Oczywiście poza tym, że ów muzyk użyczył swego głosu przy nagrywaniu kawałka Brick By Brick. „Suck It And See” stanowi swoiste połączenie skocznej i młodzieńczej odmiany rocka granego w UK, z bardziej klasycznym, szorstkim czy wręcz garażowym dźwiękiem rodem ze Stanów Zjednoczonych. Przez co, jest niezwykłym miksem wszystkiego tego co najlepsze w przeróżnych stylach rockowego grania. Tym co mnie zaciekawiło, jest zmiana charakteru nowej płyty, w porównaniu do poprzedniej, ponieważ ta nie wyprodukowana przez Homme’a, stylistycznie podąża śladami Stonerowego Rocka, szczególnie w singlowym Don’t Sit Down Cause I’ve Moved Your Chair, kiedy ta trzecia była zborem leniwych rockowych ballad dalekich od dokonań członków QOTSA.

Utwory na „Suck It And See” dzięki stosunkowo prostym rymom będą świetnie spisywać się na koncertach, na których rzesza fanów AM będzie wraz z Alexem wyśpiewywać poszczególne zwrotki. Te chwytliwe teksty mieszają się z surową gitarową muzyką charakterystyczną dla tych muzyków, która stara się wyrwać spod znanych nam wzorców. Na „Suck It And See”, znajdziemy przeróżne kompozycje. Jedne zadowolą tych, którzy wolą proste i mocniejsze rify (jak w kawałkach Don’t Sit Down Cause I’ve Moved Your Chair czy Library Picture), inne tych, którzy lubują się w wolniejszych i bardziej melodyjnych utworach (Piledriver Waltz czy Love Is A Laserquest).

Dla mnie najlepszą rzeczą związaną z nową płytą AM, jest powrót chłopaków w niektórych piosenkach do ich starego stylu (Brick By Brick, Piledriver Waltz czy All My Own Stunts) obecnego na pierwszych dwóch płytach, które chyba już na zawsze pozostaną moimi ulubionymi. Niestety trudno mi wymagać od nich całkowitego cofnięcia się o te parę lat, ale jednak fajnie było by usłyszeć nowe kawałki, w stylu I Bet You Look Good On The Dance Floor czy The View From The Afternoon. Zapewne gdyby tak się stało, wiele osób kręciłoby nosem, że muzycy nie mają niczego nowego do zaoferowania… niemniej jednak, mnie by to niezmiernie ucieszyło. Dlatego, pomimo tych lekkich odwołań do przeszłości, album „Suck It And See”, na pewno nie trafi na listę moich ulubionych i prawdopodobnie po paru odsłuchaniach trafi do wojtkowego działu albumów zapomnianych. Co oczywiście nie znaczy, że jest to płyta zła, wprost przeciwnie jest dość dobra, jednak nie podbiła mojego serca w taki sposób na jaki liczyłem. --- Wojtek Irzyk, fuckyouhipsters.blogspot.com

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Arctic Monkeys – iTunes Festival - London EP (2011)

2011-07-13T19:11:42Z

Arctic Monkeys – iTunes Festival - London EP (2011)


01. Brianstorm (Live) (3:12) 
02. Don’t Sit Down ‘Cause I’ve Moved Your Chair (Live) (3:05) 
03. Crying Lightning (Live) (3:36) 
04. The Hellcat Spangled Shalalala (Live) (2:47) 		play
05. I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor (Live) (2:50)
06. 505 (Live) (5:01)

Line-Up:
    Alex Turner – lead vocals, lead guitar/rhythm guitar, keyboards 
    Jamie Cook – rhythm guitar/lead guitar, backing vocals 
    Matt Helders – drums, percussion, backing vocals, occasional lead vocals 
    Nick O'Malley – bass, backing vocals

Arctic Monkeys are an English rock band formed in 2002 in High Green, a suburb of Sheffield. The band consists of Alex Turner (lead vocals, rhythm/lead guitar), Matt Helders (drums, vocals), Jamie Cook (lead/rhythm guitar) and Nick O'Malley (bass, backing vocals). Former band member Andy Nicholson (bass guitar, backing vocals) left the band in 2006 shortly after their debut album was released. They have released five studio albums: Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not (2006), Favourite Worst Nightmare (2007), Humbug (2009), Suck It and See (2011) and AM (2013), as well as one live album, At the Apollo (2008). Their debut album is the fastest-selling debut album by a band in British chart history, and in 2013, Rolling Stone ranked it the 30th-greatest debut album of all time. The band has won seven Brit Awards – winning both Best British Group and Best British Album three times, and have been nominated for three Grammy Awards. They also won the Mercury Prize in 2006 for their debut album, in addition to receiving nominations in 2007 and 2013. The band have headlined at the Glastonbury Festival twice, in 2007 and again in 2013. Arctic Monkeys were heralded as one of the first bands to come to public attention via the Internet, with commentators suggesting they represented the possibility of a change in the way in which new bands are promoted and marketed. ---musicbrainz.org

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