#19: Why’d You Only Call Me When You’re High? By Arctic Monkeys The Monkeys have the most inconsistent track record of any band I know, and I wish I loved them slightly more than I do. Their first album, 2006s “Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not” is an absolute masterpiece that still holds up perfectly today. A raucous burst of uncontainable energy, a cheeky spirit, a party till you drop atmosphere, it’s amazing from beginning to end. Their follow up, 2007s “Favourite Worst Nightmare” is still good, but you can already see the band slowing down. It’s the hangover album to “Whatever’s” crazy kegger. Then, something just changed in the band. They became this group that began making these hypnotic driven beats, with a very slow drawl. All the energy was gone. It was like that one friend of yours who stopped getting blackout drunk and began experimenting with Hallucinogens, which normally I’d be all for, but it just wasn’t that interesting anymore. I missed the crazt energy of the earlier Monkeys. In truth I was all but ready to write the band off, until last year’s late release of their fifth album simply titled “AM”. While it’s not exactly a return to their early headbanging days, it’s the first time the lads have been able to pull off this hypnotic thing and make it work. “AM” has a dozen great songs on it, including the opening one-two punch of “Do I Wanna Know?” and “RU Mine” which really do need to be listened to back to back. But the utter crown jewel, and a song that I’ve listened to so often that it shot all the way to the Top 20 despite coming out last year, is “WYOCMWYH”. It’s a perfectly structured song with a cheeky spirit and a knowing wink, and it’s the perfect blend of the earlier fun sound and the later slow driven beats. Welcome back Arctic Monkeys, please stay this good for a while, OK?
Posted on: Sat, 13 Dec 2014 21:20:43 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015