[Click here for Soundtrack]
3 more albums to go after this one! Here we go with #4:
Nights out on the town and the comings and goings of love. This album is about that and only that. I mean...what else does a 20-something single male rock star have going on? Make no mistake about it, Alex Turner is a global rock star, with a rabid fan base on both sides of the pond. Now me? I'm no rockstar, but the way i live my life isn't much different from Alex (except for that whole fame and fortune thing.) This album speaks to me. It's the story of the last 4 years of my life. The minute it dropped, i was hooked. It has SO MANY bangers and they're all pretty much "A-ha!" moments when you break them down. I wrote a piece for Huffington post on AM in September and rather than regurgitating the same ideas in different words, i figured we could try something different for the #4 album post. The Huffington Post article is below and let's examine the words and see if things still ring true. Did emotions change from album release to year end? What else has been uncovered in these last 3 months, besides the fact that the Arctic Monkeys might've been the biggest band on Rock Genius this year? (I'll also list out the current view counts for each song page as of 12/11/13.) The annotations are the meat and bones of this post. If you're a Monkeys fan, this post will be a fine ride for you. Enough babble, here's the track by track review:
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Every now and then, a rock band takes the next step in their careers, going from a cult indie rock band into a massive global force. These types of moments stand out and when you take the time to examine the lyrical make-up of AM along with the music, it's clear that THIS is the moment in the sun for Arctic Monkeys. The band has quickly established themselves as one of the biggest acts in the world, collaborating with Queens of the Stone Age frontman Josh Homme and mastering the pop song structure. But in AM, it's THIS collection of love songs, laments and tales of a night out that will be remembered as the point where 27-year-old Alex Turner and the Arctic Monkeys ceased becoming "just another band" and became one of the biggest bands on the planet; with mass appeal that didn't come at the expense of the quality of their music. Au contraire
Do I Wanna Know? - Frontman Alex Turner shows us his vulnerable side on the album's opening track. We'll see throughout the album, how he's become quite the ladies man, but here he tries to win a girl over with a genuine love cry of "Maybe I'm too busy being yours to fall for somebody new" Regardless of whether this works on her, it surely endears the listener to him as a lyricist right off the bat and we're pulling for him in all of his ensuing escapades from here on out
R U Mine? - It doesn't take long for you to come to the realization that this album is crazy good. In fact, on AM's 2nd track (and first single), Turner lets it all out with the quick lipped "I go crazyyyy....cause here isn't where i wanna be!" It's that genuine outpour of emotion and storytelling that we've seen before from the Arctic Monkeys...but this has a different energy behind it that's bigger and more emphatic than before
One For The Road - The first voice we hear is Queens of the Stone Age frontman, Josh Homme's high pitched chorus "One for the road...Ooh ooh!" settling into the atmosphere of the track. Homme is a longtime supporter and collaborator of the Monkeys and his confident croons leave a lasting impression on the way the listener experiences AM
Arabella - Is there a better way to assert your badassedness than to sing a song about a Bondgirl-esque lover who wears "a barbarella silver swimsuit"? I can't get the image of Jane Fonda out of my head and Turner's "Arabella" is as exotic as she is fierce
I Want it All - Let's not lose site of the fact that this is an English band. After all, would an American long for his "sweet rigmarole?" I didn't think so. Turner does his best Josh Homme impression with a higher pitched voice than usual over a sick lead guitar
No. 1 Party Anthem - The melancholy middle of the album shows Turner's soft side. How despite his womanizing ways, he still needs to hear that one song, or the "No. 1 Party Anthem" to give him the confidence to seal the deal
Mad Sounds - A tribute to the very songs that speak to us and help us get through the days and nights. If you read into it carefully, "Mad Sounds" is an intro to the very personal 2nd half of the album
Fireside - No track on the record spoke to me quite like this one. Turner so accurately describes the feeling of uncertainty in a fleeting relationship....Perhaps one that just ended and you're nearing that point where you're ready to move on; everything's ALMOST behind you, or as Turner describes it: "when your fuse is fireside." Then right at that moment, you second guess one last time and you realize how hard it is to come to terms with moving on
Why'd You Only Call Me When You'e High? - The whimsical nature of hook-ups. Perfectly depicted in the video that starts in a smoky club with 'Do I Wanna Know?' fading away in the background as the story begins to unfold:
Snap Out of It - The confidence of an alpha male is his most distinguishing characteristic. The soul vibes that permeate throughout the album rear their head again with the zany bridge to the final chorus "Under a spell you're hypnotized (ooh) / Darling how could you be so blind (snap out of it)"
Knee Socks - Perhaps the album's best song is tucked away just before it ends. Everything about this track is sexy...from the bass drum and simple guitar riff as it opens, to the imagery conjured up by a line like "When you walked around your house wearing my sky blue Lacoste... And your knee socks". And we're bouncing as the images in Alex and Josh Homme's head come together in a parting crescendo
I Wanna Be Yours - A simple outro filled with clever references like "Let me be your Ford Cortina, I will never rust" And before you go googling, all the Ford Cortina ever did was rust, showing that Turner maintains his wit and sarcasm despite the emotional roller coasters (plural) he sings about on AM
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A post script on this piece and this album: I was proud to work on this record this year on our site. I was proud of all the work and time the Rock Genius users, editors and moderators put in collectively. We had soooo many conversations debating lyrics, layouts, tech issues with pages (still going), but THIS to me was the essence of how Rock Genius brings more depth to music. There was one other album that truly fit this mold for me this year, which i'll tell you about later this week, but AM was such an awesome experience. This is a killer band
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To listen to any of the albums on our countdown, check out our Spotify playlist here
Peep the archives of all of the albums reviewed up to this point
#3 is due up tomorrow!
