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.
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.
Essentially this is a stripped-down, punk rock record with every touchstone of Great British Music covered
While their debut is not entirely original, it bristles with energy, passion and an anthemic sensibility of its own devising.
Alex Turner's breathless delivery is faultless, a foaming cocktail of lust and longing, occasionally brimming over into Costello-esque rage.
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.
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.
Whatever People Say is less obsessed with retro flavor than with uninhibited rock & roll, complete with a cocky but utterly charming leader.
To pigheadedly cast Whatever People Say I Am, That What I'm Not aside you would miss out on a truly fantastic album.
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.
Blunt and bratty, emotionally pubescent even.
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.
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.
The brash, acerbic Sheffield quartet have captured youthful imaginations by sounding something like the last schoolgirl crush, The Libertines, but with a work ethic and edges sharpened to bleeding point.
Except for a brief loss of impetus in the middle eight of "Still Take You Home", it all zips along at breakneck pace, with the band's contemporary punk-pop sound infused with some of the scrawny, blue-eyed R&B feel of 1960s bands like the Stones, Who and Pretty Things.
So no, it's not perfect. But Whatever People Say... has that edge, that thrill that comes only when a band have hit the zeitgeist hard and timed the punch to perfection.
Fashion and hype be damned -- this is thrilling, incontrovertible evidence of a major new talent in our midst.
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.
When the record’s not playing, it’s hard to miss it, and the tracks that aren’t standouts are simply boring.
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
This is a fantastic rock album, with not a single bad song and a thoroughly enjoyable listen.
Favorite Tracks: I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor, Fake Tales of San Francisco, Dancing Shoes, You Probably Couldn’t See for the Lights but You Were Staring Straight At Me, Riot Van, Red Light Indicates Doors Are Secured, Perhaps Vampires Is a Bit Strong But…, When the Sun Goes Down, From the Ritz to the Rubble, A Certain Romance
Least Favorite Track: Still Take You Home
1 | The View from the Afternoon 3:40 | 93 |
2 | I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor 2:55 | 94 |
3 | Fake Tales of San Francisco 2:59 | 90 |
4 | Dancing Shoes 2:23 | 88 |
5 | You Probably Couldn't See for the Lights but You Were Staring Straight at Me 2:12 | 84 |
6 | Still Take You Home 2:55 | 88 |
7 | Riot Van 2:16 | 85 |
8 | Red Light Indicates Doors Are Secured 2:25 | 86 |
9 | Mardy Bum 2:57 | 93 |
10 | Perhaps Vampires Is a Bit Strong But… 4:30 | 89 |
11 | When the Sun Goes Down 3:22 | 95 |
12 | From the Ritz to the Rubble 3:15 | 92 |
13 | A Certain Romance 5:31 | 96 |
#1 | / | NME |
#3 | / | SPIN |
#17 | / | Rolling Stone |
#55 | / | Paste |