Arctic Monkeys have never made a perfect album and they are not a particularly great band. They are a good band and have made some good albums, though. In another time of British music (though I find when people make these kind of links, they rarely hold any kind of weight) Arctic Monkeys would perhaps be that band that would have a few hits and a record you'd maybe quite like - this may be now the very case, but Arctic Monkeys success seems to go further and wider than that. A consistent string of number one albums almost tells the story about Arctic Monkeys but denies some of the truth beyond the surface. Generally speaking, Arctic Monkeys are well-liked mainstream rock band and people seem to like to see them do well because their humbly working class origins. The attention waned on 2009's Humbug slightly, I should know, I was there to see it - but Arctic Monkeys, post-Glastonbury and all, are arguably the most popular they have ever been now since their initial 2006-2007 ascendancy.
Arctic Monkeys could never really be called overrated, maybe by particular sections of their fanbase and the NME, but largely critics are fair with Arctic Monkeys; since Favourite Worst Nightmare most have listened to their records and checked off with a 6, 7 or maybe 8 out of 10 reviews. So that particular wait for a really great album since the enamored debut Whatever People Say I Am... can now add Arctic Monkeys to its list that also boasts The Strokes amongst others. People care about these bands though, which perhaps equips them with an artistic importance beyond their means... but the support, the fanbase and interest is there - and that makes Arctic Monkeys, rightly or wrongly, one of Britain's biggest bands.
Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not (2006)
Being just out of the age bracket to remember the buzz and furore over this album, I instead caught on about Brianstorm era before inevitably and happily finding my way to this; one of the most hailed records of recent times. Arguments will form and debate will continue but Whatever People is essentially the band's best record, because it reflects a time when the band were hugely relevant, they were filling a gap in the market, and to do so they had made an album here that included hit-singles alongside purring and catchy tracks. A band's first crack at the whip so often turns out this way, a time when people aren't predisposed with their own opinions and reservations is when a band can hit with tremendous impact. Some debuts don't do that, but this one does, quite overtly with the loud, thunderous A View From the Afternoon. Though that track and others may earrache somewhat, Alex Turner has a soul here.
8.2/10
Favourite Worst Nightmare (2007)
The idea of listening to this album without wincing at some of its lyricism or crass banality sounds like a bit of a nightmare but I recall a younger, simpler time where the album was like music to my ears. If the album had been the band's debut it would have had the same crashing effect as the former perhaps, a number one-hit single perhaps, but Arctic Monkeys' career, I think, would have been much more short-lived. That's because the album suffers from the syndrome of only written in a year or less, whereas the band could have worked on the debut almost infinitely. In those circumstances the album is something of a success, If You Were There, Beware particularly reaches new ground for the band that the first album would've benefited from.
7.0/10
Humbug (2009)
Turner reconvened from the sort-of-a-bit-interesting Last Shadow Puppets to make Humbug with the band in Nevada, under the guidance of Josh Homme. The result is the band's second best album because it's an evolution from the thrashy, trashy nature of some of Favourite Worst Nightmare in a time where wannabe band's were already starting to copy the band's early sound. Some of the songs are the best the band have produced, namely Dangerous Animals, Cornerstone and the brilliant The Jeweller's Hands. Tantalizing and topsy turvy, neither amazing in the way that some of it's biggest fans feel it fit to justify it by (presumably as revenge to the slightly colder reaction to the album by the mainstream press and the milder fanbase) nor as poor as some of the territory Turner's strange metaphorical dribble would take him in later years.
7.4/10
Suck it and See (2010)
The quiffs arrived and the band were rid of their roots and onto something else entirely; some will say (apparently being working class constrains one to always be "doing it for the people".) Suck It and See has some songs that should make an Arctic Monkeys compilation; Love Is a Laserquest and She's Thunderstorms. But elsewhere some of the lyricism is too shoddy, too overtly metaphorical it can't quite be stomached over the stadium-bound sound the guitar playing often adopts.
6.9/10
AM (2013)
The album starts promisingly, with Do I Wanna Know? and R U Mine? admittedly playing a strong part in implying the album will be something of a thumping, sexy and languid affair but somewhere it doesn't quite stick. It's a bit like the kind of album a band records after extensive periods of touring, just to maintain their appeal. And although Arabella and Knee Socks are somewhat promising, they are cut from the same sonic cloth as music the band knows full well works well on some other tracks, but this instead makes them formulaic instead of equally interesting. Mad Sounds and No.1 Party Anthem stray into the dodgy territory of being songs describing songs, which I don't think can ever be a good thing.
6.7/10
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