It's a monkey (Favourite Worst Nightmare - Arctic Monkeys)

Member Name: bailey_kipper_uk

Product:	Favourite Worst Nightmare - Arctic Monkeys
Date:	18/08/07 (141 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good first few songs

Disadvantages: Not a great 2nd half of the album

Having listened to this album for a few months now I feel happy that I spent my hard earnt £6.99 on it. I like many people do these days, purchased the album on the strength of one track, the first single, Brianstorm, of course the highly successful first album also had something to do with it.
In the lead up to this album being released there was a lot of questions asked about whether it was possible to produce an album anywhere near the quality of Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not. Well they’ve tried but have definitely fallen short. After the first couple of listens I didn’t really enjoy it other than the first half of the album and found myself stopping the album half way through and either starting it again or putting something else on if I was sat at the computer. However as I said at the start I have listened to it a few more times and it has grown on me.

The album was released in April and easily picked up the number one slot in it’s first week outselling total sales of the rest of the top 20, however there was only actually one other decent new album out that week which was Beyonce’s stupidly named B’day (her next one I think is going to be called Fanny Pack).

It’s already spawned 3 singles and is on the verge of a 4th so now seems a good time to tell you about them.

1 – Brianstorm – 2.50 – At first glance most people think this is called Brainstorm, however it’s not… It refers to a chap they met backstage at a gig in Japan who turned up in “a t-shirt and tie combination”. Apparently the band found this guy so odd they decided to write a song about him. It’s a very fast paced song for the Arctic’s and gives us a taster of how they have matured from the first album. It is a much heavier, much harder sound, the guitars are played more aggressively and they seem like they are really trying to make a good first impression. 9/10

2 – Teddy Picker – 2.43 – The first couple of swear words on the album, a theme that continues, displaying the more aggressive style of this album. There’s a lot of lyrics crammed into this song, continuing the Arctic’s story telling style from the first album. A song that Alex Turner (lead vocalist, lead guitar and songwriter) uses his distinctly northern accent to highlight words like in Mardy Bum off of the first Arctic’s album. 7/10

3 – D is for Dangerous – 2.16 – The shortest song on the song and this continues the quick punchy songs that have gone before it and continue after. This is also technically the title song of the album as “Favourite Worst Nightmare” is said a couple of times in this song. 7/10

4 – Balaclava – 2.49 – The fourth song and still yet to make it over 3 minutes, again continuing the ‘how many words can we sing in under three minutes’ idea that started this album off. 7/10

5 – Fluorescent Adolescent – 2.57 – This song allows Alex to sing much more rather than trying to fight against the drums and guitar that so far have been winning the war. Brilliant song and a very strange but excellent video to go with the single when it was released recently – 9/10

6 – Only one who knows – 3.02 – I don’t know if they decided to take a break at this point but this song basically is sung at a standstill compared to the other songs so far. It’s an ok song but certainly not one you’ll enjoy straight away, the first few times I heard this I skipped it, I don’t now though. Ok tell a lie I just skipped the last 20 seconds - 4/10

7 – Do me a favour – 3.27 – Back on it again, although now where near as good as the first few songs, until about 2:30 into the track when it picks up properly - 6/10

8 – This house is a circus – 3.09 - Some quick but light drumming to start off, this song I feel is quite similar to Teddy Picker, however not up to the same standard – 6/10

9 – If you were there, beware – 4.34 – A good start to the song but after about a minute you feel as though you’ve heard it before. The songs do start to feel a bit samey at this point and unlike the first album you sense the good songs were just put at the start and then some other stuff added on the end so they could go down the pub. – 5/10

10 – The Bad Thing – 2.23 – Oooh, back to the good stuff again. They are very good at doing short songs on this album, which is a shame as an album really should be 45 minutes at least (You’d get your money back if this was a concert the whole album is only 38 minutes) – 7/10

11 – Old Yellow Bricks – 3.11 – You can tell the longer songs as they have over 10 seconds of music before Alex starts singing. This is a good song that actually has a verse and chorus structure to it, a very unexpected thing from the Arctic’s and certainly on this album – 7/10

12 – 505 – 4.13 – Another decent song to end the album with but by now I want to start the album again just to listen to the first 5 songs – 6/10

As you can probably guess from my review the album does trail off a lot after song 5, however it’s still a decent album, it’s just nowhere near as good as Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not

Summary: It needs a 3rd album to revive the band of they may need to be made extinct