It's not that often that side projects are more ambitious than the players' main bands, but the Last Shadow Puppets, the collaboration between the Arctic Monkeys' Alex Turner and the Rascals' Miles Kane, is one of those rare birds. With their day jobs, Turner and Kane are revivalists of different strains of "angry young British man" rock, but with the help of drummer/producer James Ford (also of Simian Mobile Disco), arranger Owen Pallett (Final Fantasy), and the London Metropolitan Orchestra, on The Age of the Understatement they revitalize the lush, symphonic pop of early Scott Walker and David Bowie, when they needed an orchestra to express just how sweeping their feelings were. The title track's galloping strings-and-timpani drama begins the album, making it readily apparent just how ironic The Age of the Understatement's name is, and just how well the Last Shadow Puppets have recaptured that lavish late-'60s/early-'70s sound. The main update to it comes from Turner and Kane's voices; stark and suave like Walker and Bowie they are not, but that's a good thing -- their boyish, unpretentious voices and brotherly harmonies keep the album from dipping into kitsch. Instead, a surprising urgency runs through The Age of the Understatement, most noticeably on the taut "Calm Like You" and "Separate and Ever Deadly," but also on softer moments like "The Meeting Place" and the extremely Walker-esque "My Mistakes Were Made for You." Whenever the drama threatens to become too monotonous, the band knows when to change things up: "I Don't Like You Anymore" brings in more of the Arctic Monkeys' spit and spite, building up to a livid guitar solo that practically shakes with loathing, while "Standing Next to Me" and "Time Has Come" rein in the bombast. Despite all the intensity, the Last Shadow Puppets have a light touch -- their songs are short and don't overstay their welcome, and the whole affair is just arty and indulgent enough to make it special. It's not an overstatement to say that The Age of the Understatement is a likable, accomplished working holiday.
--- - |- Sometimes I feel like music blogging is the 21st century's answer to sailing for spices. For the last few thousand years humans have been constantly exploring new land and planting flags in new soil, satisfying that explorer's itch. In the last few generations, however, this ability suddenly vanished as we ran out of new land [...] ~~- The Last Shadow Puppets
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MOGstars: 9/10Understatements can’t really be something Alex Turner has heard much in the last few years- ever since he muttered “Don’t believe the hype” at the start of the video for I Bet You Look Good on The Dancefloor he and his band of Arctic Monkeys have been showered with superlatives; fastest-selling, best, phenomenal and a thousand other compliments have come there way from both c
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Quite often I find myself reading the home pages of many of the people here on MOG. One of my favorite things to look at is people's online musical collections. If I see some bands listed that I like, well I usually dig a little deeper to see if there is anything that I had not heard before and in turn head over to Itunes to give them a listen.My question here is this, if you had to trade compu...
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After much blood, sweat, and tears I managed to compile my list. My favourite 16 (yes, I know it's an unorthodox number} albums of 2008. There are many I haven't heard yet {sorry, Primal Scream}, and I'm mostly being subjective and self-centered, meaning that these are the albums that I listened to and enjoyed the most, as well as those which touched me in 2008 ways.For the first time I left ou...
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Here are my top 10 albums for the first half of 2008. Order is based on how often I listened to them so far. Underneath each album are a study on {approved!} allmusic adjectives, lyrics in italics form and some ramblings of mine.This post is dedicated to Stefan (http://mog.com/SA), who organized this whole project, and whom I tortured by changing my list 3 bloody times :) If you haven't voted ...
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I discuss the collaboration between Arctic Monkey's frontman Alex Turner and Rascals songwriter Miles Kane with non-Mogger, the Girlfriend (a.k.a Jill).The GF: These songs really wants to make you want to jiggle your body and dance around. It’s sad though, if I like something, I can’t be jokey about it. I can’t slag it.Me: Okay, I’ll slag it.The GF: No, don’t!Me: This is the 21st Century
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MOGstars: 9/10Understatements can’t really be something Alex Turner has heard much in the last few years- ever since he muttered “Don’t believe the hype” at the start of the video for I Bet You Look Good on The Dancefloor he and his band of Arctic Monkeys have been showered with superlatives; fastest-selling, best, phenomenal and a thousand other compliments have come there way from both c
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The Last Shadow Puppets, comprised of 1 Arctic Monkey (Alex Turner) and 1 Rascal (Miles Kane), released a brand new video today, off their recent debut album, The Age of the Understatement. Here is "Standing Next to Me": You'll notice that the dapper gents are rocking the turtleneck/blazer, Beatles-style. I'd like to add this as my non-Photoshopped contribution to Mike The Knife's post earli...
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The Last Shadow Puppets are set to play two shows in New York and Los Angeles next week, supporting the release of an exclusive EP release. The US-only version of 'My Mistakes Were Made For You', an 8-song expanded track EP came out yesterday (October 21) and will be released on CD on November 4. Tracks on the EP include a live version of 'Paris Summer' (made famous by Lee Hazlewood & Nancy ...
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A very nice lil live performance Is that our Anna in the front row????
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Alex Turner combines his lyrical prowess with a sexed up, sixties style sound that seems like it should be a Bond theme. Bloke from The Rascals stands on the touchlines....
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Alex Turner (Arctic Monkeys) & Miles Kane (The Rascals) are The Last Shadow Puppets.Directed by director Romain Gavras, their debut video is as big as Mother Russia, following our intrepid heroes' adventures in Moscow and includes ice skating, an Orthodox priest, tanks and a chorus of Russian Soldiers..
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Arctic Monkey Alex Turner and The Rascals' Miles Kane have a band together called The Last Shadow Puppets. The duo just released their first opus with this video which first appeared (rather ominously) on www.ageoftheunderstatement.com and is now available for sharing:The Last Shadow Puppets - The Age of the UnderstatementUploaded by DOMINO-FRANCEThe Last Shadow Puppets' debut album, The Age ...
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Sometimes, you know (or at least I do) that you will love a record before you've even heard it. Such was the case when I first read about the Last Shadow Puppets - a duo comprised of Alex Turner (Arctic Monkeys) and Miles Kane (The Rascals) - in Paper. Admittedly, I am a bit more familiar with Turner's work, following the Arctic Monkeys since 2006, with Favourite Worst Nightmare becoming one ...
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We've finally gotten over our holiday hangovers and are back from our hiatus! Check out the TLC list for all things 2008. Agree? Disagree? We were hoping for some last minute 2008 additions, but the last few weeks of 2008 proved to be extremely boring in the blogosphere. We will resume posting as usual in 2009. Happy New Year! LOVED: Albums : The Last Shadow Puppets 'The Age of the Unders...
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Mercury Prize voters: Alex Turner has a worthy project called the Last Shadow Puppets that is up for your consideration, and in case you forgot , here is a Richard Ayoade-directed video to help refresh your recollection. Here the Arctic heartthrob and his fellow Puppeteer Miles Kane of the Rascals move about a bit more than during the mod-era TV-show "Standing Next To Me ," talking midnight str...
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 "The Age of the Understatement")
