Don't...Don't... Don't... Don't..Don't Believe The Hype

Whatever They Say I Am, That's What I'm Not - The Arctic Monkeys [Domino]


Such is what the Arctic Monkeys can get away with at the moment they haven't been even slightly admonished for the worst album title in a long, long time... but there it is the world of music have a new darling. Much in the same way Oasis stepped into the Nirvana shaped media hole of 1994, so have The Arctic Monkeys slipped into the gap left by The Libertines. The papers at the minute seem to love the idea of bands who have close ties with their fans and the monkeys/fan bond at the moment seems to the closest based as the band's success is on myspace.com and word of mouth. Yes they seem a pleasant enough bunch of chaps and the site of people knowing all of the songs at gigs when a band doesn't even have a record out says a lot for the connection between artist and audience, but that isn't what this review is about. It's about the quality of the record being as I am someone who recognises that The Monkeys are FAR from being either the best band around or even the most promising of the spate of newcomers at the moment. So how do the songs manage without the fanatical support of the toni&guy brigade bouncing around you...

All the songs present here have been bouncing around on the internet in some form or another for a good year now so the album is somewhat robbed of any freshness before it starts. Of course, there is the hope that great production would introduce some sparkle to damper the familiarity, but the production here appears to be the albums real weak link, with nothing added to the songs at all - in fact some have had the quality down graded a notch with 'I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor's' slower verses drastically weakening the energy of the song.
What has remained through is the Cocker-esqse biting satire of the lyrics which helps lift the songs above the sum of their parts, with 'A Certain Romance' and 'Fake Tales..' in particular. Musically though they don't really anything more than a slightly more polished Libertines and at times can delve into being just plain generic, though it does retain a certain energy and charm throughout that prevents you from hating the group.
Overall then a genuine, lyrically clever, if musically stunted record that does nothing to surprise but entertains with its rock 'n' roll thrills. Not deserving of the hype but deserving of a listen.

7/10 - Good