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.
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.
100
Essentially this is a stripped-down, punk rock record with every touchstone of Great British Music covered
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.
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
While their debut is not entirely original, it bristles with energy, passion and an anthemic sensibility of its own devising.
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.
83
Blunt and bratty, emotionally pubescent even.
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
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.
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.
74
At times charming, oddly affecting, and certainly promising but understandably something less than life changing.
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.
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.
6mo
40
This is the new big British band? This is barely inspired enough to make it off campus.
40
One good single does not a great album make, and unfortunately, the rest of the record becomes pretty tedious, pretty quickly.
Arctic Monkeys was a phase!
Everything is a phase!
I'll never stay the same person for more than a year!
My life is a phase!
Everything is a phase!
I'll never stay the same person for more than a year!
My life is a phase!
I really doubt I'm going to be coming back to many of the songs on this album, but overall it's a fun rock/punk album. I guess since I've already heard From Under The Cork Tree, this would have to be a much more refined version of that since this album's sound is a lot more varied and polished.
Some of the guitar riffs on this album though... GAHDAMN (also Alex's voice is kinda cool)
favourite tracks: A View From The Afternoon, I Bet You Look Good On The Dance Floor, Still Take You Home, Red ... read more
Some of the guitar riffs on this album though... GAHDAMN (also Alex's voice is kinda cool)
favourite tracks: A View From The Afternoon, I Bet You Look Good On The Dance Floor, Still Take You Home, Red ... read more
Imagine being a teenager again. Imagine the fun, the fear and the bad decisions that your puney, high school, youthfully optimistic brain got up to in your "best years". Now imagine that took place in Essex, and that you really liked going to the pub with your mates. Imagine what that would sound like. Whatever your thinking, that sound probably sounds something like Arctic Monkeys classic debut dance punk record, that continues to be a fun and engaging record.
Favorite Jams: Dancing ... read more
Favorite Jams: Dancing ... read more
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END OF YEAR LISTS
| #1 | / | NME |
| #3 | / | SPIN |
| #17 | / | Rolling Stone |
MISC LISTS
Track List
- The View From the Afternoon
- I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor
- Fake Tales of San Francisco
- Dancing Shoes
- You Probably Couldn't See the Lights But You Were Looking Straight at Me
- Still Take You Home
- Riot Van
- Red Light Indicates the Doors Are Secured
- Mardy Bum
- Perhaps Vampires Is a Bit Strong But...
- When the Sun Goes Down
- From the Ritz to the Rubble
- A Certain Romance
In Library (162)
stereogum.com
New Track: Arctic Monkeys – “Anyways” 
pitchfork.com
Watch Arctic Monkeys Cover the White Stripes 
