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Volume 71, Issue 94,
Tuesday, February 21, 2006
Life & Arts Foreign Monkeys should be loved by all UK rock band raises the bar with a debut album head and shoulders above fad groups by ENRIQUE DOMINGUEZ
The British music scene is going bananas -- or monkey-crazy at least. After the release of their sophomore album Demon Days, the Gorillaz' success catapulted them to global notoriety and garnered a slew of Grammy nominations. On the other side of the spectrum, Arctic Monkeys are the new media darlings in Great Britain with a sound that recalls Nuggets-era garage rock, Britpop and mod-punk with fresh young faces to boot. Barely nearing their 20s, the young lads from Sheffield have created Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not, a debut album full of tracks that will have fans shaking their hips, banging their heads and throwing a chair or two through a window. The first single off the album, "I Bet You Look Good on the Dance Floor," was the first debut single to appear at No. 1 on the UK pop charts since the Spice Girls' "Wanna Be." It is a tune that is an explosive riot of pop and punk with an insatiable groove that sets it apart from anything by Fall Out Boy or Panic! At the Disco. Lead singer/guitarist Alex Turner steps up to the mike with a raspy British yelp that recalls Oasis' Liam Gallagher and a lyrical output that flows as well as The Streets' Mike Skinner. During the Monkeys' comedic ode to female wallflowers, Turner sings, "I bet that you look good on the dance floor / Dancing to electro-pop like a robot from 1984." "Dancing Shoes" builds on the boys' fancy for dancing girls. The song begins with Turner yelling, "Get on your dancing shoes" backed only by drums through the first verse. It then breaks into a dance-punk free-for-all with guitarist Jamie Cook's hip-twisting guitar riffs and rump-shaking drum beats courtesy of Matt Helders. The track "Riot Van" is the sole ballad on the album and it showcases the beauty of Turner's voice. When he sings, "They got a chase last night from men with truncheons dressed in hats," fans of the now defunct Libertines will stop having to wait another day for lead man Pete Doherty to clean up and will find a new hero in Alex Turner. "When the Sun Goes Down" appears at first to be the band's second ballad on the album, but then turns upside down into a mod-punk ditty. Turner tells a tale about a couple where the male character has a negative influence on the female. Arctic Monkeys even borrow a line from an old Police classic when Turner sings, "And I've seen her with girls of the night / And she told Roxanne to put on her red light." Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not is a collection of finely tuned Britpop that will withstand the test of time in Great Britain much like Blur's Parklife and Oasis' Definitely Maybe, but is uncertain if the United States will accept it in the same vein. The year 2005 has come and gone with names like Kaiser Chiefs long forgotten; it would be a crime if Americans let the Arctic Monkeys suffer the same fate on this side of the pond.
Arctic Monkeys Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not
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