Arctic Monkeys - AM

The Sheffield rockers return with a RnB tinged LP only slightly short of greatness...

Every album Arctic Monkeys have released has gone straight to number one in the UK charts. They've done extensive touring with the likes of The Black Keys, played the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics to the entire world, and still to this day, a full eight years into their time as a signed band, have a devoted following both sides of the pond. With the release of AM, it’s perfectly justified to argue that the Sheffield lads reached an unprecedented peak in their career so far.

What stands out to me the most about this record is the fact that the band has yet again done something that has become quite a trademark for them: exploring a sound they haven't already. Whilst it's certainly true that all twelve songs on AM don't exactly go somewhere no artist has been before, it's not somewhere they have been before themselves - and that's credible in itself.

When news first hit that a new Monkeys record was in their works, all we had to go on was that that they were going to be "exploring the sound" started by Record Store Day 2012 single 'R U Mine?', indicating a return to the heavier, louder days that came before their more melodic fourth LP, Suck It and See. To write off the finished product as that, however, would be far too lazy. 

AM is quite possibly the most diverse sounding record the lads have put out to date. The album channels the slicker, rockier vibes of 'R U Mine?' on album opener ‘Do I Wanna Know?’, a slow-stomping tune that sees Alex's lyrics on strong form. "Have you no idea that you're in deep? / I dreamt about you nearly every night this week / how many secrets can you keep? / 'cause there's this tune I've found that makes me think of you somehow and I play it on repeat" howls Turner, in a tone so smooth it’s surprising to find he's not by your side, whispering it in your ears himself. The heavier vibes can be heard elsewhere in the chorus of ‘Arabella’, but as far as that sound goes that's about it - but that said, these tracks are loud rockers that fans of Arctic Monkeys' earlier work will love.

So where else can they go? Perhaps the biggest surprise in the run-up to the album was Alex stating that the record sounds like the work of rap artist Dr. Dre. Frankly, a bold statement that, whilst ridiculous, isn't far off. You can see where he’s coming from; ‘One For The Road’, ‘Arabella’ and ‘Why'd You Only Call Me When You're High?’ all drip with a steamy, bassy coating of RnB, which strangely doesn't feel out of place at all. In fact, Nick O'Malley's bass throughout the whole record is better than ever and adds a beautiful flow to the whole thing. The bass riff in 'One For The Road' is ridiculously smooth and sets up the track as one of my highlights from the whole LP. 

Borrowing further from the glamorous world of RnB are the new-found backing vocals, in which O'Malley and Monkeys' sticksman Matt Helders provide Turner with high-pitched backing, a trademark found littered throughout this body of work. It's effective and cool for the most part, but it gets borderline cheesy on the daringly close to pop song ‘Snap Out Of It’, and even worse so on a breakdown in ‘Knee Socks’, in which Helders takes the helm and seemingly sings as high as he possibly can. I can't listen to that bit without laughing - it just seems so out of place. Thankfully, Queens of the Stone Age singer and Monkeys' best pal Josh Homme saves the day with perhaps the  greatest guest appearance in Arctic Monkeys’ history. I can't fully work out what he's singing but it sure is cool.

'No.1 Party Anthem' and 'Mad Sounds' see the boys looking to the past; the former could be easily mistaken for a lost song from the Submarine soundtrack, or even quite possibly a Lennon number. Alex's knack for writing catchy sing-along lyrics particularly shines here, with croons of "she's a certified mind-blower" and "it's not like I'm falling in love/I just want you to do me no good" building up to the everyone-get-together-and-sing chorus of "Come on come on come on, No.1 Party Anthem!" Elsewhere,'Mad Sounds' sees them donning a Lou Reed-esque strut. The melody at the start of the song could easily come straight out of a Velvet Underground tune. "It's a song about songs", Turner once described, showing his genius once again. It's a slow burner that eventually builds up to a refrain of "Ooh la la la", which, whilst catchy, is somewhat anti-climactic. This is primarily because of the instrumentation to this part, being nothing but a few chords on the guitar and the organ. I can't tell you how gutted I was when the beautiful melody Jamie Cook introduces in the last 35 seconds of the song came in – this being the exact thing that could have made the song a masterpiece if it had been introduced a bit earlier.

In fact, that's my only major gripe with the entire record. There are certain points when things feel just a little too bare-bones when it comes to the meat of the instrumentation. AM doesn't have the glorious excess of catchy riffs that we're used to from Arctic Monkeys’ previous efforts; in fact, the amount of lead guitar seems to have been stripped down. The guitar work on much of the record seems to have taken a backseat this time around, giving way to experimentation with drums, bass lines, backing vocals and Alex's lyrical prowess. The minimalist approach works fairly well for the majority of the album, but you can't help but think just that extra lead riff over the top here and there could have made what are a good-enough bunch of tracks into an album of near-on perfect ones. The main culprit of this problem is I Want It All, the first Arctic Monkeys song I've ever hated. There's just nothing memorable about it.

The boys make up for these flaws with some truly awesome moments, regardless. Take the solo from 'Fireside', for example, a mysteriously beautiful melody courtesy of ex-guitarist of The Coral, Bill Ryder Jones, or Alex's excellent lyrics on 'Arabella', in which he unwinds vocals such as "Arabella's got some interstellar 'gator skin boots/and a helter-skelter round her little finger/and I ride it endlessly" before singing of "a kiss the colour of a constellation." The imagery and flow of his words are something that just wouldn't have been possible for him five years ago. Five albums in, and somehow he's still evolving as a songwriter. Lyrics on this album seem to have taken a turn, too. It sees Alex traversing yet again unexplored territory, with much of the record charting the events of late night romances, early morning parties and the life of a rock and roll band in general. Despite this, what are perhaps some of the most brilliant words on AM come from a different writer entirely, in the form of album closer 'I Wanna Be Yours', Arctic Monkeys' re-imagining of a John Cooper Clarke poem. It's simplistic but elegant, in terms of both the words and the music that accompanies them. A fitting conclusion to the album, given the huge amount of inspiration Clarke has provided Turner over the years.

Diverse, unique and undeniably cool, AM is a fantastic addition to the ever-expanding Arctic Monkeys palette. Whilst it does fall short in some places, the boys' fifth record proves that they still have plenty of kick left in them - pretty impressive given how long they've been going. It's a welcome experiment that has given us some great tunes, a few of which are likely to be classics on their live sets over the next few years. 

8/10

By Conor Richards
Edited by Ed Bates