I decided that for my first review, I would do one of my favorite albums, so keep that in mind that this is one of my personal favorites.
For the most part, Arctic Monkeys debut album, Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not, is a simple album. Simple guitar riffs, simple bass lines, etc., but the band brought one key element that helped their success. Lyrics. And the lyrics weren’t poetic masterpieces, but they’re something the younger generation can relate to. The whole album is essentially a diary of what Alex Turner, frontman, and the band saw on a day to day basis in their hometown of Sheffield, therefore it was easy to relate to.
Now, lets get into the tracks.
The View From The Afternoon starts off the album pretty strong with a fast, punk/indie rock song which gave you an idea of what you would hear on the majority of the album. It’s simple, with lots of distortion. It even references their “don’t believe the hype” attitude with the first line saying, “anticipation has a habit to set you up, for dissappointment.”
I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor follows it up with their first massive hit. For what it is, it’s perfect, but, like most pop-oriented songs, it has a few downsides. It’s redundant, the two verses only differ from about two lines, the rest is the same, so the whole song is basically a giant chorus. Though it is a catchy chorus, still repetitive. It does have some pretty good guitar work from frontman Alex Turner in a few spots.
The next track, Fake Tales of San Francisco, is one of my personal favorites on the album. Alex has a much more distinct vocal delivery on this track, and the guitar riff is so incredibly catchy, it will get stuck in your head for days. The lyrics have a great bravado about them, and it tells a story about a “hipster” type of character. One line says “The band was fucking wank, and I’m not having a nice time,” which showcases the bands humor.
Dancing Shoes is next, and it’s a song that has a great instrumental, but for some reason the lyrics and vocals weren’t memorable for me. It has a really good drum pattern and the bass line is great, but just never connected with me. However, the bridge of the song, is terrific.
You Probably Couldn’t See For The Lights But You Were Staring Straight At Me follows, and it picks up the slack from the previous track tremendously. It’s short, right under two minutes, but they jammed a ton into this track. There are great back and forth vocals from Alex and drummer, Matt Helders. The lyrics are great in this song, referencing a relationship gone bad. Overall, a hidden gem for me.
Track 6, Still Take You Home, is everything “I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor” should’ve been. It has an excellent guitar riff and vocal melody. Alex’s voice really stands out. It has a really interesting bridge and features some great harmonized vocals.
Riot Van comes in and really changes the pace of the album. It’s still describing a night out in Sheffield, but it’s a mellow, moody track. Alex’s voice sounds really good with the effects and tempo of the track. Alex’s lyrics also improve and he tells a great story in the song. It’s different, and breaks up the album in a refreshing way.
Red Light Indicates Doors Are Secured goes back to the formula of the rest of the album. It has a catchy riff that picks the pace back up from Riot Van. It also still features good storytelling, but in a different format.
Mardy Bum is perfect. That’s all I should have to say. It still holds up today as one of their top tracks. The song starts with this insanely catchy riff and the song just flows seamlessly from there. It changes topics from the rest of the album. It has Alex singing about a relationship he’s trying to keep afloat and the emotion he puts into the vocals makes it very believable. It really is just a perfect track, best on the album for sure.
Following is their most ambitious song up to this point, Perhaps Vampires Is A Bit Strong But.. It differs from the usual formula a lot and has a more progressive feel, that of which maybe Manchester Orchestra would put together. It shows off the bands instrumental skills and each instrument is highlighted at some point. The lyrics show a much more hateful side to Alex as he has a bit more grit in his voice and they’re an obvious hate letter to a group of people. It still has a really catchy melody, which is something that the band proved to be good at. The song dismantles in the best way possible with just a huge breakdown to end the track.
When The Sun Goes Down follows a much more pop-oriented style of song structure, similar to track 2, yet it still manages to tell an intriguing story. It starts with some chords and Alex saying, “Here’s that girl there, I wondered what went wrong so that she had to roam the streets,” and you’re instantly hooked on the story. Well, it doesn’t dissappoint, it picks up, adds some distortion and drums, and rocks your face off with simple riffs and a blazingly fast drum pattern.
From The Ritz To The Rubble is structured in a way that I find is really intriguing. Alex uses a melody and vocal delivery style that’s catchy and accessible. The instruments build up individually, coming in at different times, and then blend together really well, only for the song to dismantle again and build back up. This time though, everything goes haywire in the most pleasing way imaginable.
The last track on the album is also the longest. A Certain Romance combines everything about the album and puts it in one song in a masterful manner that most bands wouldn’t be able to on a debut album. The songs starts off very intense with a really fast drum pattern and some guitar and bass thrown in too. Then the song just abruptly changes with some really clean guitars and simple drum pattern that lasts for the duration of the verses and chorus that is pretty catchy. However, the song bursts back into a frenzy and ends with an epic outro.
So overall, the album would get a 92/100 for me, because the instrumentation is pretty simple throughout most of the album, but the band experiments on some tracks and it works perfectly. So if you’ve never listened to the album, I certainly recommend it. It’s a great listen, and is very enjoyable many years after your first time.
Also, if you’ve never listened to the genre, it could be a nice gateway for you to dive deeper in the genre, it was for me.
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