Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not — Arctic Monkeys
Domino
2006
Rating:


Like The Streets and The Libertines before them, the Arctic Monkeys have been called the voice of the band's generation. Bob Dylan was once reluctantly saddled with that title for writing socially conscious songs about Vietnam, civil rights and feminism. One wonders what it says about this generation that its designated "voices" are more concerned about getting thrown out of a bar for flirting with the wrong girl and downloading that new ringtone than they are about Iraq and eroding liberties.

"Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not" is decided apolitical, though it does paint a remarkable picture of youth in its natural habitat by distilling 40 years of punk into 13 tracks, drawing a straight line from The Kinks' "Face to Face" through The Sex Pistols and The Clash to The Libertines' "Up the Bracket."

The Arctic Monkeys garnered early buzz — thus the buzz-defying, Albert Finney-quoting title — with first single "I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor." The guitars crunch and thrash like any dime-a-dozen rock band you've been steadfastly ignoring since Nirvana. After 20 seconds, the '90s rawk relents so singer Alex Turner can make his come-on: "Stop making the eyes at me and I'll stop making eyes at you." What it is that surprises me, is that you won't really want him to. When the guitars and the drums start to thrash this time around, "I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor," ironic as it is in encouraging someone to dance like "a robot from 1984," sounds like the perfect song for CBGB's dancefloor.

A frantic need for the Arctic Monkeys to prove itself can be heard on the album's first blistering track "The View From the Afternoon," where angular guitars come at you in odd rhythms as 19-year-old Alex Turner sings, "Anticipation has the habit to set you up / For disappointment in evening entertainment but / Tonight there'll be some love /
Tonight there'll be a rawkus."

True to his word to the very end, "Whatever You Say I Am," is an incredibly rawkus album of witty, self-deprecating lyrics and loud, righteous melodies. Take, for instance, "Fake Tales of San Francisco," in which a bored concertgoer proclaims, "The band weren't very good / And I'm not having a nice time." That kicks the Arctic Monkeys into overdrive, causing them to spit back, "I'd love to tell you all my problem / You're not from New York City, you're from Rotherham / So get off the bandwagon, and put down the handbook." Turner offers a similar condemnation of youth on "A Certain Romance," lamenting, "There's only music so there's new ringtones."

"Dancing Shoes" comes in at a gallop before turning into post-punk as the song details a shy clubber who feels the "shit, shock, horror" of seeing his "future bride," but "it's oh so absurd / For [him] to say the first word." "You Probably Couldn't See for the Lights But You Were Staring Straight At Me" is the second act, in which the hero approaches a woman surrounded by other guys trying to impress, talks gibberish, then blurts out, "Never again, will there be another one that's as desirable as you." In the conclusion, "Still Take You Home," the hero turns better and says, "I can't see through your fake tan," but, of course, she's also a "Topshop princess" and he'll still take her home.

For all the ecstasy of the band's fantastic punk rock, Turner also tells remarkable, fully detailed tales that are almost "Seinfeld"-esque in their ability to transcend their mundane plots. "Red Light Indicates Doors Are Secure" is about taking a taxi ride that has a story within its story about some guys who "wanted to be men and do some fighting in the street / No surrender, no chance of retreat." The Roxanne-referencing "When the Sun Goes Down" begins as a ballad about a prostitute: "I wonder what went wrong / So that she had to roam the streets / She don't do major credit cards / I doubt she does receipts." Things turn more sinister once the tempo picks and a "scumbag" picks up the freezing girl.

Despite the hype of "Dancefloor," the real album highlight is the bouncer-bashing and "Saturday Night and Sunday Morning"-reflecting "From the Ritz to the Rubble." An explosion of the album's most fiery, hardest riffs underline Turner's deconstruction of how different the city looks in the daylight. Before the guitars go off on a surfer riff, Turner offers the familiar observation of "Last night what we talked about / It made so much sense / But now the haze has ascended / It don't make no sense anymore."

It may not be as socially aware as Dylan or even The Clash, but it paints as vivid picture of life as this generation knows it, and that's something valuable indeed.

Posted Thursday, March 2, 2006

Link to this review:
http://filmzeus.pressbin.com/music/arctic.monkeys/whatever.people.say.i.am