Monkey Mania !!! (Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not - Arctic Monkeys)

Member Name: amylouspurr

Product:	Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not - Arctic Monkeys
Date:	09/02/06 (101 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: infectious clasic tunes, sooooo of the moment!!

Disadvantages: Some songs may start to grate in a few months time

The only people who wont have heard of the Arctic Monkeys by now are those likely to own every West life Cd and only have ever been to a Robbie Williams concert, in other words, if you have any interest in modern music whatsoever you will know something about this band, even if its only due to the ridiculous media frenzy that is begining to grow around them.

Their debut albulm "Whatever people say i am thats what im not" had kids queeing through the night at record stores up and down the country and had to be rush released due to internet leaks. Now even this supposed early release seemed an eternity to many fans who have been following the monkeys for up to a year through the craze which is free downloading.

I was lucky enough to see The Arctic monkeys in august 05 at Reading festival in a small tent, when they were more or less unknown, I remeber being amazed at how most of the crowd knew all the words when they hadnt even realeased one track let alone an album. There was a buzz in the air and i could feel something special was begining. It all seemed reminicent of when Oasis first came onto the scene, Here are anouther band unpretentious in the way they play their music and dress which would appeal to all those finding Maximo Park and Franz Ferdainand a little on the camp side.

Highlights on this album include early and little known about single 'Fake tales of san Francisco' with the arctics now signiture ridiculously catchy riff and lyrics dylon would be proud of. Album tracks 'Dancing shoes' and ' Still take you home' are equally good, capturing saturday night down the indie disco and neatly packaging it into these brilliant tunes.

The only downside to this album is that as most people have been listening to their songs illegally for the last 6 months they are starting to seem a bit stale, dare i say throw-away?!! When i hear the opening line of 'When the sun goes down' on the radio, you know.... "Whos that girl there?..." I can feel my eyes begining to roll and that faint iritation in my gut that precedes me flicking the station.

Can they survive the Hype machine? I hope so, as lead singer Alex Turners song writting ability is obviously immense and his great observational wit will make an interesting second album. But whatever happens the Arctic Monkeys really seem a band of the moment and will go down in history for that if noting else.

Summary: Catchy crossover Indie / Pop........... Hard to resist...