Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not
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CRITIC REVIEWS
100
For those poor misguided fools who say that Arctic Monkeys are hype over substance, this is a blisteringly good album which promises even better things to come.
11y
100
Whatever People Say I Am captures the band mashing up the Strokes and the Libertines at will, jamming too many angular riffs into too short a space, tearing through the songs as quickly as possible.
11y
100
Essentially this is a stripped-down, punk rock record with every touchstone of Great British Music covered
11y
100
While their debut is not entirely original, it bristles with energy, passion and an anthemic sensibility of its own devising.
100
It's not a classic, most of us will be sure of that. This is good pop; this is excellent, dirty, fun pop. This is the stuff girls and boys will dance to in scrotty concrete jungle indie clubs, this is the stuff people who don't even like rock and roll will like.
100
Arctic Monkeys bundle their influences together with such compelling urgency and snotty confidence that they sound like a kind of culmination: the band all the aforementioned bands have been leading up to.
91
Whatever People Say is less obsessed with retro flavor than with uninhibited rock & roll, complete with a cocky but utterly charming leader.
90
Don't come at this like it's some kind of holy artifact, just treat like a rock record. Because it is one of the best (though not quite the best) rock records in recent years.
81
The Arctic Monkeys aren’t worth all of the giddy hyperbole they’ve received in recent months, but Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not is still as fun and crafty a debut as you’re likely to hear this year, one that kicks as much ass on your way to work as it does at a party or while you’re puttering around the house.
80
A start-to-finish rush of invigorating riffs and pointed narratives that heightens with repeated exposure.
80
Their riff-heavy songs are brashly delivered – favouring attitude over technique – but it's Turner's keenly observed vignettes of bored text-messaging teens that really connect.
80
Yes, theirs is a sound similar to a lot of the names jaded hipsters and criterati will spew on auto-fire disdain, but no-one else really sounds like them, and very few people indeed are writing taut rockin' pop songs under three minutes long that are simultaneously as smart and as unpretentious as those proffered here.
11y
74
At times charming, oddly affecting, and certainly promising but understandably something less than life changing.
11y
67
Song after song returns to the same nightclubs for the same set of cocky put-downs and faintly misogynist come-ons. Meanwhile, the band fumbles through a sound that seems to have been assembled from pieces of retro-minded rock acts like The Strokes and Franz Ferdinand, but without the sense of purpose or history.
11y
60
Whether this It band can sustain any momentum beyond its current meteoric rise remains to be seen, but should Turner continue crafting his devastatingly incisive lyrics, he should be around for some time to come.
60
When the record’s not playing, it’s hard to miss it, and the tracks that aren’t standouts are simply boring.
40
One good single does not a great album make, and unfortunately, the rest of the record becomes pretty tedious, pretty quickly.
11y
40
This is the new big British band? This is barely inspired enough to make it off campus.
11y
The fact that this is a debut album is astonishing coming from albums further into the AM discography, such as Humbug and TBHaC. There is a certain level of sharp writing, fantastic production, and passionate performances that allow this project to pop out of the pages. For the entire run time, it is electrifying and captivating. This album certainly earned the praise it received. I think the second half is a bit stronger on the songwriting and structure side, but throughout the album there is ... read more
It's what a rock album should be. It's quite astonishing that this album is the band's debut. I don't think a band can be introduced better than this.
This was my first introduction to Arctic Monkeys and I cannot say I was disappointed. Not only is there that classic early 2000s pop-punk flair, but Alex Turner’s voice is kind of like an instrument of it’s own. A View From the Afternoon starts the album by kicking the door straight open which carries momentum until the end of the album, although it does seem to lose steam at some points.
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Track List
| 1 | The View from the Afternoon 3:40 | 91 |
| 2 | I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor 2:55 | 91 |
| 3 | Fake Tales of San Francisco 2:59 | 89 |
| 4 | Dancing Shoes 2:23 | 86 |
| 5 | You Probably Couldn't See for the Lights but You Were Staring Straight at Me 2:12 | 82 |
| 6 | Still Take You Home 2:55 | 87 |
| 7 | Riot Van 2:16 | 84 |
| 8 | Red Light Indicates Doors Are Secured 2:25 | 85 |
| 9 | Mardy Bum 2:57 | 91 |
| 10 | Perhaps Vampires Is a Bit Strong But… 4:30 | 88 |
| 11 | When the Sun Goes Down 3:22 | 94 |
| 12 | From the Ritz to the Rubble 3:15 | 90 |
| 13 | A Certain Romance 5:31 | 95 |
Total Length: 41 minutes
Year End Lists
| #1 | / | NME |
| #3 | / | SPIN |
| #17 | / | Rolling Stone |
| #55 | / | Paste |
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7mo
I like this album but A Certain Romance is so superior and different to everything else it feels like it belongs in another album
9mo
I'd like to cordially apologize to the Arctic Monkeys for doubting the mix of their album "Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not", its actually not bad at all
11mo
I'm not the kind of guy to talk a lot about mixing but holy fucking shit I didn't remember this album being so horribly mixed
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