![]() ![]() “Anticipation has a habit to set you up for disappointment,” is quite a line with which to open a hotly anticipated debut album. Cornerstone (2009)Ī strong candidate for the title of the most straightforwardly lovely song Arctic Monkeys have ever released, Cornerstone’s greatness is focused more on the simple splendour of its melody – and indeed its guitar solo – than Turner’s words, although there are some fantastic lines in there: “I smelt your scent on the seatbelt.” 6. The guitars alternately clang and shimmer, the bass powers the whole thing along, the lyrics seem to switch between celebrating a new romance and mourning a lost one. That’s Where You’re Wrong (2011)Īrctic Monkeys are good at grand finales: every one of their albums has a great closing track. Which brings us to Mardy Bum’s utterly charming, slang-packed saga of relationship strife – it wouldn’t be half as affecting in a faux-American drawl. Turner began his career imitating the Strokes’ Julian Casablancas before realising that singing the way he spoke – with a Yorkshire accent – was infinitely more original and effective. Performing at the Paradise Rock Club in Boston in 2006. Star Treatment (2018)īlessed with the most striking opening line on Tranquility Base – “I just wanted to be one of the Strokes,” sings Turner, presumably autobiographically, “now look at the mess you made me make” – Star Treatment’s music and arrangement offers up a homage to the Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds that’s ambitious and entirely successful. The brilliance of I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor may lie in the disparity between the tone of the lyrics – wryly detached, even as they’re ogling a girl at a local indie club – and the tone of the music, which sounds like said club night at its frenzied peak. I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor (2006) “You’re rarer than a can of dandelion and burdock / And those other girls are just post-mix lemonade,” Turner sings winningly on a song that, equally winningly, matches the kind of melody you would find on a late-60s easy-listening pop hit to a mass of trebly, echoing guitars. Unlikely inspiration maybe, but it works. The most coherent and powerful Arctic Monkeys album since their debut, AM attracted attention for its heavy guitar sound, but the primary influence on Why’d You Only Call Me … is clearly R&B – there’s a distinct hint of early 00s Destiny’s Child about its staccato riff. Why’d You Only Call Me When You’re High? (2013) Social media is a topic well worn to the point of weariness but – backed by what sounds like the AM-era Arctic Monkeys sound falling to pieces – Turner’s take is funny, original and packs one of the great aphorisms of the Instagram age: “Dance as if somebody’s watching, ’cause they are”. But they sometimes succeed in style: Only Ones Who Know is a gentle, fond drawing of a couple in love, with a beautiful melody. Only Ones Who Know (2007)įavourite Worst Nightmare is by far Arctic Monkeys’ most uneven album you can hear the effort involved in trying to move on from their record-breaking debut. ![]() The shorter, more lyrically pointed version from their much-fileshared collection of early demos, Beneath the Boardwalk, is the one to hear. Riot Van offers a brilliant framing of adolescent ennui, setting the tale of a gobby teenager’s run-in with the police to music that sounds like a sigh or a diffident shrug. The chorus’s Black Sabbath-y guitar stabs (specifically reminiscent of War Pigs) are magnificent. Arabella is a supreme example of him in bedazzled lover man mode – he somehow gets away with referring to the object of his attentions as his “little lady”. Turner’s writing became wracked with lust towards the end of the 00s. A few lines from it clearly reference his frustrations about Lithofayne’s refusal to commit solely and absolutely to him.Arctic Monkeys at Atlantic City in 2012. A close reading of the lyrics reveals that ‘Foxy Lady’ is not just a song about sexual desire, but the desire for fidelity. Speaking about Pridgon’s possible inspiration, The Guardian reports, “ seems to have been completely misread as nothing more than a lascivious come-on, bedroom braggadocio to shore up the exotic strutting, super-stud persona attached to Hendrix. She was sought after by other rock icons like Sam Cooke and Sly Stone. The second thought is that the iconic track was inspired by Lithofayne “Faye” Pridgon, who was Hendrix’s girlfriend in the mid-’60s. Some believe the woman to inspire the song was the chestnut-haired Heather Taylor, a woman on the rock scene, who later married The Who’s Roger Daltrey. ![]() Over time, while many likely have wished to be the inspiration for the song, there is a consensus that the song’s inspiration comes down to two people. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |