Some girl must have seriously broken one of the band members’ hearts, because they are MAD.
While the Arctic Monkeys have never been a particularly chirpy bunch, at least their earlier albums had a cheeky and endearing sense of humour. Their latest recording unfortunately seems to have lost some of this former sass. In the words of popular vernacular these days: AM is “bleak”.
However, said bleakness is not necessarily a bad thing. While these lyrics might not thrill me the way they used to, their storytelling style of meandering through vivid memories and experimenting with existential postmodernism in an almost Hamlet-like way still remains the same. Am I giving them too much credit for their whining and moaning about girls who didn’t love them back? Probably. But dammit, almost everyone can associate with those feelings, and that’s what the core of their appeal is.
As for the music that accompanies the lyrics, the band seems to have ‘matured’ a lot. The frenetic electric guitar chords that usually characterise their sound have been stripped down to include only the most necessary strums. Yet the basslines are just as catchy as ever, and the prominence of such lower tones perfectly compliments the darker, broodier themes that dominate the album.
Finally, Alex Turner’s voice. He really is believable when he sings about being sad/lonely/nostalgic/regretful/drunk/high. As per usual, I was seduced into wanting to be that girl who fixes all of his problems.
Oh, the perils of being single.
3.3/5