Comments on: Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I probably am, maybe….. http://musosguide.com/whatever-people-say-i-am-thats-what-i-probably-am-maybe%e2%80%a6/9476 Online Music Guide Mon, 06 Feb 2012 11:54:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Paul Faller http://musosguide.com/whatever-people-say-i-am-thats-what-i-probably-am-maybe%e2%80%a6/9476/comment-page-1#comment-5005 Paul Faller Tue, 02 Feb 2010 15:00:58 +0000 http://musosguide.com/?p=9476#comment-5005 Hmm. I think you're being very harsh on Favourite Worst Nightmare - for me it certainly stands up to their debut. It might even be better, I can never decide. Sure, Turner's lyrics largely abandoned observation, but wit? Hardly. See 'Brianstorm', 'Teddy Picker' or 'Fluorescent Adolescent' for examples - it may be more wry and cynical, but the wit's still there. Then again, '505' and 'Do Me A Favour' are two of my favourite Arctic Monkeys songs, so what do I know. I'd hardly say that the content of those songs represents Turner becoming old before his time though - long-distance heartache and infidelity/breakups are fairly universal concepts, after all.<br><br>Ultimately, Arctic Monkeys' second record was going to be successful regardless, so they could have just bashed out another album of observational singalongs, ignoring any press drubbings and indier-than-thou backlash that they might get for doing so. So its to their credit that they decided to change things up and push their boundaries a little - and it seems ironic that people are starting to grumble that, in fact, they'd rather the band had stayed the same all along. Do we not want our bands to grow, to expand, to experiment, to 'mature' (to use that ugly word)?<br><br>And yes, I'm not holding my breath for an album of Kid A significance, but Arctic Monkeys have at least shown us that they're not content to sit on their laurels. If there's one thing that Humbug has demonstrated, it's that they're not afraid to change their focus, even if it risks alienating some of their less dedicated fans.<br><br>tl;dr version: Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not may continue to be considered the 'definitive' Arctic Monkeys album, but to dismiss the rest of the band's output because it's different to that record is very short-sighted indeed. Hmm. I think you're being very harsh on Favourite Worst Nightmare – for me it certainly stands up to their debut. It might even be better, I can never decide. Sure, Turner's lyrics largely abandoned observation, but wit? Hardly. See 'Brianstorm', 'Teddy Picker' or 'Fluorescent Adolescent' for examples – it may be more wry and cynical, but the wit's still there. Then again, '505' and 'Do Me A Favour' are two of my favourite Arctic Monkeys songs, so what do I know. I'd hardly say that the content of those songs represents Turner becoming old before his time though – long-distance heartache and infidelity/breakups are fairly universal concepts, after all.

Ultimately, Arctic Monkeys' second record was going to be successful regardless, so they could have just bashed out another album of observational singalongs, ignoring any press drubbings and indier-than-thou backlash that they might get for doing so. So its to their credit that they decided to change things up and push their boundaries a little – and it seems ironic that people are starting to grumble that, in fact, they'd rather the band had stayed the same all along. Do we not want our bands to grow, to expand, to experiment, to 'mature' (to use that ugly word)?

And yes, I'm not holding my breath for an album of Kid A significance, but Arctic Monkeys have at least shown us that they're not content to sit on their laurels. If there's one thing that Humbug has demonstrated, it's that they're not afraid to change their focus, even if it risks alienating some of their less dedicated fans.

tl;dr version: Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not may continue to be considered the 'definitive' Arctic Monkeys album, but to dismiss the rest of the band's output because it's different to that record is very short-sighted indeed.

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