So, much to my delight, The Arctic Monkeys are back. And it has to be said, I’m as excited as Bubbles was at Michael Jackson’s will hearing.
One thing always strikes me about the Monkeys is the way the critics suck up to them big time! Personally, I absolutely 100% agree with them as I love them and they have released two brilliant albums. They’re debut being, in my opinion, one of the finest British albums of all time and one of the greatest and cleverest concept albums since Dark Side of the Moon. But they’re now approaching that time in their careers that all musicians dread … the difficult third album.
Now I know it’s a musical cliché and not every musician takes any notice of it, but I’m sure some of them do have a very good knowledge of music history and know that the difficult third does exist. The Monkeys though, I think they are a group of supremely confident young men (all still aged 23) who will just shrug it off with comment of “not arsed mate” and quietly get on with making decent music.
Now, I’m no music critic by any standards, but having listening to the Monkeys latest single, I can’t help thinking that the lovey-dovey relationship between the critics and the Monkeys will soon be coming to an abrupt end as lets be honest here: critics love nothing better than sharpening their pencils in anticipation of a good old public execution. The NME are prize examples of this. The Monkeys two albums received an extremely rare and well deserved 10 for their debut and a 9 for their second so I’m guessing this time around when Humbug is due for released the lads in the band will be reading the review and be shell shocked to roll their eyes over a frosty 7 or indeed a (fucking freezin’) 6
Now, if they do receive a bad review for Humbug, I personally feel the blame should lie at the door of Alex Turner and his rather annoyingly sixties obsessed Last Shadow Puppets for ruining the party. The way I see it this this: the Monkeys were on a roll. No doubt they might have needed a break after a long spell of constant touring, so my question is this: why didn’t Turner? The rest of the band did! He should have took time out to write stuff for his number one ‘project’ instead of waddling off around Europe with his best mate and their Scott Walker tribute band
Sadly, of late, there have been a succession of bands who have fell foul to squeezing out a difficult third in the shape of Kasabian, Franz Ferdinand and The Zutons, but there have been a couple of bands who (in my opinion) have released very good ‘difficult thirds’ and they are The Rakes (Klang) and The Killers (Day and Age), two stunning albums with very clever (and sometimes pornographic) lyrics provided by Alan Donohue and Brandon Flowers. These are of course two very different bands from The Artic Monkeys as The Killers are American and have never really captured the hearts of the British public in the way The Monkeys have and The Rakes have never (sadly) really hit the heights of mainstream Indie Music. Then again, they seem very comfortable and assured of having that ‘tag’ hanging around their necks.
Personally I hope the Monkeys do well in their careers and I do like them as lads as they are a breath of fresh air that glides over a business that is far too obsessed with taking itself seriously and seriously full of people (acting like dickheads) who also have their heads firmly implanted in the anus’s.
But remember this Mr Turner before you decided to have another ‘side project’ moment, if the music isn’t up to scratch and the reviewers have well and truly sharpened their pencils, as the one of your most famous tracks goes … “give him half the chance I bet he’ll rob you if he can I know he’s not impressed at all”.
Mol
Wednesday, 15 July 2009
Squeezing Out That Difficult Third
So, much to my delight, The Arctic Monkeys are back. And it has to be said, I’m as excited as Bubbles was at Michael Jackson’s will hearing.
One thing always strikes me about the Monkeys is the way the critics suck up to them big time! Personally, I absolutely 100% agree with them as I love them and they have released two brilliant albums. They’re debut being, in my opinion, one of the finest British albums of all time and one of the greatest and cleverest concept albums since Dark Side of the Moon. But they’re now approaching that time in their careers that all musicians dread … the difficult third album.
Now I know it’s a musical cliché and not every musician takes any notice of it, but I’m sure some of them do have a very good knowledge of music history and know that the difficult third does exist. The Monkeys though, I think they are a group of supremely confident young men (all still aged 23) who will just shrug it off with comment of “not arsed mate” and quietly get on with making decent music.
Now, I’m no music critic by any standards, but having listening to the Monkeys latest single, I can’t help thinking that the lovey-dovey relationship between the critics and the Monkeys will soon be coming to an abrupt end as lets be honest here: critics love nothing better than sharpening their pencils in anticipation of a good old public execution. The NME are prize examples of this. The Monkeys two albums received an extremely rare and well deserved 10 for their debut and a 9 for their second so I’m guessing this time around when Humbug is due for released the lads in the band will be reading the review and be shell shocked to roll their eyes over a frosty 7 or indeed a (fucking freezin’) 6
Now, if they do receive a bad review for Humbug, I personally feel the blame should lie at the door of Alex Turner and his rather annoyingly sixties obsessed Last Shadow Puppets for ruining the party. The way I see it this this: the Monkeys were on a roll. No doubt they might have needed a break after a long spell of constant touring, so my question is this: why didn’t Turner? The rest of the band did! He should have took time out to write stuff for his number one ‘project’ instead of waddling off around Europe with his best mate and their Scott Walker tribute band
Sadly, of late, there have been a succession of bands who have fell foul to squeezing out a difficult third in the shape of Kasabian, Franz Ferdinand and The Zutons, but there have been a couple of bands who (in my opinion) have released very good ‘difficult thirds’ and they are The Rakes (Klang) and The Killers (Day and Age), two stunning albums with very clever (and sometimes pornographic) lyrics provided by Alan Donohue and Brandon Flowers. These are of course two very different bands from The Artic Monkeys as The Killers are American and have never really captured the hearts of the British public in the way The Monkeys have and The Rakes have never (sadly) really hit the heights of mainstream Indie Music. Then again, they seem very comfortable and assured of having that ‘tag’ hanging around their necks.
Personally I hope the Monkeys do well in their careers and I do like them as lads as they are a breath of fresh air that glides over a business that is far too obsessed with taking itself seriously and seriously full of people (acting like dickheads) who also have their heads firmly implanted in the anus’s.
But remember this Mr Turner before you decided to have another ‘side project’ moment, if the music isn’t up to scratch and the reviewers have well and truly sharpened their pencils, as the one of your most famous tracks goes … “give him half the chance I bet he’ll rob you if he can I know he’s not impressed at all”.
Mol
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