Arctic Monkeys – AM

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Arctic Monkeys AM artwork

Arctic Monkeys seem to be an invincible band, their first four albums have all debuted at the Number 1 spot on the charts, they put on a brilliant performance during the 2012 Olympic Games, and frontman Alex Turner has done a movie soundtrack (and quite a brilliant one at that). Around the time Turner’s soundtrack to Submarine released, the band had just released their first single on what would become their fourth album, entitled Suck it and See. I found Brick By Brick to be an appalling track, and can’t listen to the whole song to this day, I was seriously worried that the band had run out, that they were done producing truly world class music. The band went on to produce their fourth album and I couldn’t have been more wrong, Suck it and See is arguably their best until number five. The foursome from Sheffield are back, with an album quite simply called AM.

The band are heading in a rawer direction than their previous releases, and it has become a huge success following Suck it and See. The singles Arctic Monkeys released for AM made me very excited for the release of the album, and AM came nowhere near disappointing me. As I am monkeying (pun intended) my way through my first play through, it is certainly clear that R U Mine was the song that set the tone for most of the album. Lovely, raw guitar riffs surround Turner’s addicting voice when the album eventually changes the style, replaces riffs with strums and piles on more “shoo-wop’s” than in the first half of the album. This is made very clear in tracks like I Want It All and Fireside.

Compared to the opening tracks, the final stretch of AM is very different. This makes for brilliant listening, unlike other albums this year that have gone completely wrong after changing, AM triumphs. Never have I enjoyed knee socks so much, and I mean the 11th track. Knee Socks shows that Arctic Monkeys have an extremely rare talent; they can’t make bad music (apart from Brick by Brick, but we can just ignore that for now). Not only can they rock Knee Socks, they actually make it stylish. A toe-tapping, flowing rhythm that will have you humming its beautiful choruses whilst thinking about the subtle but brilliant bass. The album unfortunately ends, I Wanna Be Yours does however make sure that you are still awed by the amount of talent on display. As you are coaxed through this dreamy ballad, I certainly hope the recurring lyric “I wanna be yours” means that Alex Turner and co. become ours, and write true masterpieces like AM for the rest of time.

5/5

A work of art, and by far the bands best release yet. AM is out on September 6th in Germany and on September 9th in the UK via Domino Records.

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