Breathless praise is a time-honored tradition in British pop music, but even so, the whole brouhaha surrounding the 2006 debut of the Arctic Monkeys bordered on the absurd. It wasn't enough for the Arctic Monkeys to be the best new band of 2006; they had to be the saviors of ock & roll. Lead singer/songwriter Alex Turner had to be the best songwriter since Noel Gallagher or perhaps even Paul Weller, and their debut, Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not, at first was hailed as one of the most important albums of the decade, and then, just months after its release, NME called it one of the Top Five British albums ever. Heady stuff for a group just out of their teens, and they weathered the storm with minimal damage, losing their bassist but not their sense of purpose as they coped in the time-honored method for young bands riding the wave of enormous success: they kept on working. All year long they toured, rapidly writing and recording their second album, Favourite Worst Nightmare, getting it out just a little over a year after their debut, a speedy turnaround by any measure. Some may call it striking when the iron is hot, cashing in while there's still interest, but Favourite Worst Nightmare is the opposite of opportunism: it's the vibrant, thrilling sound of a band coming into its own.
The Arctic Monkeys surely showed potential on Whatever People Say I Am, but their youthful vigor often camouflaged their debt to other bands. Here, they're absorbing their influences, turning their liberal borrowings from the Libertines, the Strokes, and the Jam into something that's their own distinct identity. Unlike any of those three bands, however, the Arctic Monkeys haven't stumbled on their second album; they haven't choked on hubris, they haven't overthought their sophomore salvo, nor have they cranked it out too quickly. That constant year of work resulted in startling growth as the band is testing the limits of what they can do and where they can go. Favourite Worst Nightmare hardly abandons the pleasures of their debut but instead frantically expands upon them. They still have a kinetic nervous energy, but this isn't a quartet that bashes out simply three-chord ock & roll. The Monkeys may start with an infectious riff, but then they'll violently burst into jagged yet tightly controlled blasts of post-punk squalls, or they'll dress a verse with circular harmonies as they do at the end of "Fluorescent Adolescent." Their signature is precision, evident in their concise songs, deftly executed instrumental interplay, and the details within Turner's wry wordplay, which is clever but never condescending. Indeed, the remarkable thing about the Arctic Monkeys -- which Favourite Worst Nightmare brings into sharp relief -- is their genuine guilelessness, how they restructure classic ock clichés in a way that pays little mind to how things were done in the past, and that all goes back to their youth.
Born in the '80s and raised on the Strokes and the Libertines, they treat all ock as a level playing field, loving its traditions but not seeing musical barriers between generations, since the band learned all of ock history at once and now spit it all out in a giddy, cacophonous blend of post-punk and classic ock that sounds fresh, partially because they jam each of their very songs with a surplus of ideas. Some of this was true on their debut album, but it's the restlessness of Favourite Worst Nightmare that impresses -- they're discovering themselves as they go and, unlike so many modern bands, they're interested in the discovery and not appearances. They'll venture into darker territory, they'll slow things down on "Only Ones Who Know," they'll play art punk riffs without pretension. Here, they sound like they'll try anything, which makes this a rougher album in some ways than their debut, which indeed was more cohesive. All the songs on Whatever shared a similar viewpoint, whereas the excitement here is that there's a multitude of viewpoints, all suggesting different tantalizing directions they could go. On that debut, it was possible hear all the ways they were similar to their predecessors, but here it's possible to hear all the ways the Arctic Monkeys are a unique, vibrant band and that's why Favourite Worst Nightmare is in its own way more exciting than the debut: it reveals the depth and ambition of the band and, in doing so, it will turn skeptics into believers.
Josh Homme playing at Reading yesterday;..24 August 2008 - Speaking to the Music Week on 6 Music, Queens Of The Stone Age frontman Josh Homme exclusively revealed that he will be producing new material by the Arctic Monkeys. And rather than recording in the UK, the band will relocate to the Californian desert to work on songs for their third album: "Yes, they're gonna come out to the desert,"...
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ARCTIC MONKEYS - FAVOURITE WORST NIGHTMARE (2007)The critical diversity that greets High Green’s finest seems to stem from the trumped up accolades that heralded Arctic Monkeys meteoric rise to Indie stardom. We’ve all read the story, and the public viewpoints are strong enough to split the atom. Retro new wave “wannabees”, or the vital cog in engineering a resurgence in wordy art rock for
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One of the biggest challenges for a band is trying to follow a great first album with an even better second album. The expectations are so high that when the band doesn’t live up to those expectations, the fallout is immense. The risks are great, but the rewards are even greater, for if they succeed in pleasing the masses, the sky is the limit for their popularity.This is the crossroads that th.
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I'm taking an easy night tonight nursing a laryngitis and trying not to talk too much. This next post rambles a bit but I'll blame it on the sickness.I was listening to Arctic Monkeys' album Favourite Worst Nightmare and realized that it's a pretty damn good album. I had finally bought it after looking at MOGgers's entries in Dale's compilation of best albums of the first half of 2007.I had lik...
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Bonjour to you, The ReaderI have decided to pop our Songs up on as some poeple have never heard my band Censored. To Check out our Gig DatesClick HereOn the News front we have been featured as band of the week on XFM Manchester and need your votes so if you can follow the link and vote for us that would be great! Vote For Us Here on XFMWe are also going to London this Sunday to do a TV session....
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Live Review: Arctic Monkeys in Malahide Castle, DublinOnly after the _third_ trainer whizzes past his nose does Alex Turner feel moved to comment. "Is there a big shoe sale on in Ireland or summat? Buy one pair, get one free? One to wear, the other to chuck at the band?" A quick smirk later, Turner leads the band into one of the highlights of the night, the art-punk stomper, _Old Yellow Bricks_...
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ahhhh. how i love new music. just got this album from a friend in england and i'v been listening to it on repeat for the past 2 days. on the school bus, doing my homework, anything! i should have a holster on my hip to hold this cd. this house is a circus has to be my favorite song on the album, partially because that hook "this house is a circus, bezerk as f*ck" gets stuck in my head for ho...
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BrianstormSurprised – Again 2005 Reading festival; and everyone in the guest area are talking about this new band who where playing one of the small tents at 4pm. I’d heard ‘I bet you look good on the dance floor’, a few weeks before so wandered along to find the crowd 10 deep outside the tent. Resorting to the old trick of holding 2 pints of beer above your head and chanting excuse me, e
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They may be over rated to the point of annoyence, but as this very poor radio rip proves, those lads from Sheffield can still pump out a really, really, really awesome tune every now and then. A lot more aggressive than anything from their first album, and this time with a good bassist and Klaxons producer James Ford, this is a really promising sign that almost washes the horrible taste of Leav...
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das. fa. fa. faf.sa .fa .fa f.a f.fa.fa .fa fa.fa .fa.fa.EDIT: Does my mp3 get cut off for you?EDIT 2: I guess it works for everybody! I received help from Patrick and it worked like a charm :)Thank you for the feedback!
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Josh Homme playing at Reading yesterday;..24 August 2008 - Speaking to the Music Week on 6 Music, Queens Of The Stone Age frontman Josh Homme exclusively revealed that he will be producing new material by the Arctic Monkeys. And rather than recording in the UK, the band will relocate to the Californian desert to work on songs for their third album: "Yes, they're gonna come out to the desert,"...
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... be listening to the new Queens of the Stone Age album, just so Kev will stop haranguing me.... be writing reviews of the new Kings of Leon, Sebastian Schiller, and Suburban Kids With Biblical Names. (Sorry Kez!)So why is it that the Gigabeat player keeps getting stuck on this album?The only conclusion is that I'm completely entranced. This song alone has been lodged into my consciousness, ...
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The results for the Q Awards are in and apparently the Arctic Monkeys are the best band in the world today, so say the British Republic.The Sheffield band were awarded the accolade this afternoon (October 8), beating off competition from The Killers, Foo Fighters, Muse and U2.Poised to sweep the "best categories" The band were also nominated for 'best album' at the Q Awards, but lost out to Amy...
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Live Review: Arctic Monkeys in Malahide Castle, DublinOnly after the _third_ trainer whizzes past his nose does Alex Turner feel moved to comment. "Is there a big shoe sale on in Ireland or summat? Buy one pair, get one free? One to wear, the other to chuck at the band?" A quick smirk later, Turner leads the band into one of the highlights of the night, the art-punk stomper, _Old Yellow Bricks_...
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Can't say that I've been a fan before now...
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Clowns! Runaway, runaway.....
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Jools Holland (ex - Squeeze) introduces the show Later, which is a ‘must see’ (more like ‘must record’ as it’s a Friday night….) here in the UK. Simple concept; Get bands in and let them play LIVE. I've been to a few of these shows and they are completely live with very few re-takes.Enjoy the Arctic Monkeys playing last Friday;- Brianstorm- 505- Teddy Pickerhttp://www.youtube.com/watch
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BrianstormSurprised – Again 2005 Reading festival; and everyone in the guest area are talking about this new band who where playing one of the small tents at 4pm. I’d heard ‘I bet you look good on the dance floor’, a few weeks before so wandered along to find the crowd 10 deep outside the tent. Resorting to the old trick of holding 2 pints of beer above your head and chanting excuse me, e
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For the Arctic Monkeys...I love,love,love the new record...here is one of my favorites
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New Arctic Monkeys video...Have YOU seen it yet?Teddy Picker...
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tracks:artists:
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ARCTIC MONKEYS - FAVOURITE WORST NIGHTMARE (2007)The critical diversity that greets High Green’s finest seems to stem from the trumped up accolades that heralded Arctic Monkeys meteoric rise to Indie stardom. We’ve all read the story, and the public viewpoints are strong enough to split the atom. Retro new wave “wannabees”, or the vital cog in engineering a resurgence in wordy art rock for
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A quick search of Mog did not reveal anyone else posting this. Sorry if it has been posted already.Enjoy! I am. :)
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Arctic Monkeys are psyched about their new video. The 4 lads recently finished filming the music video for "Fluorescent Adolescent", the next single off Favourite Worst Nightmare. Arctic Monkeys' frontman Alex Turner called the video, "the best thing we've ever done." The band discusses the video and Dizzee Rascal collaborations with MTV news. Just click over to read more.Here is (a differ...
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| Title | Lyrics | Buy |
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| 1 Brianstorm |
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| 2 Teddy Picker |
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| 3 D Is for Dangerous |
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| 4 Balaclava |
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| 5 Fluorescent Adolescent |
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| 6 Only Ones Who Know |
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| 7 Do Me a Favour |
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| 8 This House is a Circus |
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| 9 If You Were There, Beware |
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| 10 The Bad Thing |
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| 11 Old Yellow Bricks |
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| 12 505 |
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Click to purchase…
© 2006-2009 Mog Inc. All Rights Reserved
 "Favourite Worst Nightmare")
