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Track Listings
| 1. The View From The Afternoon |
| 2. I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor |
| 3. Fake Tales Of San Francisco |
| 4. Dancing Shoes |
| 5. You Probably Couldn’t See For The Lights But You Were Looking Straight At Me |
| 6. Still Take You Home |
| 7. Riot Van |
| 8. Red Light Indicates Doors Are Secured |
| 9. Mardy Bum |
| 10. Perhaps Vampires Is A Bit Strong But.. |
| 11. When The Sun Goes Down |
| 12. From The Ritz To The Rubble |
| 13. A Certain Romance |
Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
No question, the Monkeys are more sinners than saints. The opening "The View From The Afternoon" predicts a ruckus with a whole lot more grit than the Kaisers can muster, while on the mellow "Riot Van", a tale of underage drinking and cop-baiting culminates in a messy beating in the back of a station-wagon. Look beyond the Arctics’ bristly, laddish exterior, however, because it’s actually affairs of the heart that comprise this album’s secret core: see the sweaty-palmed "Dancing Shoes", bearing testament to the trial of nerves that is pulling in a suburban indie nightclub, or "Mardy Bum"--tribute to a moody girlfriend that, for all its witty barbs ("I’ve seen your frown and it’s like looking down the barrel of a gun"), is tinted with sweet affection.--Louis Pattison
Review
With hindsight, 2006’s Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not lacks both the acerbic edge of its fairly immediate successor Favourite Worst Nightmare – released just 15 months later – and the sense of completeness conveyed by their most recent, Josh Homme-assisted affair, Humbug. But the same – that the debut doesn’t match its follow-up releases – could be said of many a domestic indie success: Radiohead’s Pablo Honey is an embarrassment placed beside the superlative structures of The Bends, and Pulp didn’t hit their stride until fourth effort, His ‘n’ Hers. Granted, Oasis have perhaps never bettered Definitely Maybe, but they’re the exception to what’s otherwise a fairly established rule.
Exuding the ramshackle character of their preceding (freely distributed) demo material, much of Whatever People Say… flows at a rambunctious pace, its players’ shortcomings at the time masked by an infectious energy – listening back, it’s the spirit of When the Sun Goes Down and I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor that nailed them to our hearts, not any particular compositional flair (Alex Turner’s John Cooper Clark-indebted lyricism aside). With their innocent faces but wicked tongues, the Arctics were always a commercial proposition in waiting; Domino’s success in signing them sped the process up, but it’s hard to imagine a world without these songs finding a sizeable audience, label assistance or not.
The album’s clearest hooks are broad enough to cover several sub-genre bases, while the spiky riffs appeal instantly to punk-minded indie kids after something with true bite – especially after the likes of Keane and (modern era) Snow Patrol took the torch passed by Radiohead et al and proceeded to dampen it down to a smouldering shadow of its former self. Today’s definition of what passes for an indie band has everything to do with this album: it redefined one’s musical lexicon, pinching from the past but resolutely contemporary with its tales, however faked, of young-adult-eye-level social minutiae.
And it’s for its legacy, rather than actual content, that Whatever People Say… warrants categorising as a classic of its era. Its roots might not stretch deep, but branches continue to sprout forth from its frame --Mike Diver
Find more music at the BBC This link will take you off Amazon in a new window
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Customer Reviews
Not since Radiohead's 'The Bends' has an album been released and it has has had such a dramatic and positive influence on its audience. The lyrics to the music are modern poetry and the music is stupendous. It's life changing in so much as it gives you a positive view of musicians and the world, in that young people can analyse (and pleasure) the world around them so accurately.
In fact I think this album is better than 'The Bends'. Every song on it is an absolute classic, that nearly six months on, I am not tired of listening to it. Whereas, I didn't scour 'The Bends' cover for more snippets of trivia to satiate my junkie appetite for the band.
The melodies are as good as, dare I say it, The Beatles. The guitar leads are as good as any of the best rock bands I've loved. The bass lines are spine tingling; the best I've heard on 'I bet that you look good on the dance floor'. Gives a new dimension to the word 'bass'.
If I had to criticise, the album doesn't celebrate women as much as the Beatles, which is one of the reasons I love the Beatles so much. But then, to compare a band with the Beatles? I can't believe I'm doing it. I only love Abbey Road and the White Album more than this.
I want to go on a Arctic Monkeys tour of Sheffield - it'll do wonders for Sheffield's tourism industry. It's so good it makes me cry. And when I think I might have lost (my three copies of ) this album I break into a cold sweat. Hurry up with the next album boys.
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