Album Twelve: Arctic Monkeys

So, I’m trawling through my newsfeed last week.  Curious to see what was beyond the headlines of Biden’s inauguration.  The image of a slightly overweight young man, a face flushed with the arrogance of youth, smoking a cigarette popped up.  It was the fifteenth-year anniversary of the release of the fastest selling debut album in UK history.  The man on the cover is Chris McClure, a friend of the band behind the record, taken on a night out in their hometown Sheffield.  The band?  Arctic Monkeys.

‘Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not’, a title taken from a line in Alan Sillitoe’s novel ‘Saturday Night and Sunday Morning’ landed like an atom bomb.  By the time the band was ready to record their first album a furious bidding war had gotten underway to sign the band.  In typical confidence, some might say arrogance (In a good way), they chose an indie label to release the album.

This practice of doing what they wanted to do without paying heed to the masses delights in the same way Bob Dylan’s stubbornness brings a pang of satisfaction.  Of course, they have always been right, without faltering.  Even the 2011 ‘Suck it and See’ that is probably the least revered of their releases is still in my mind a masterpiece.

In 2006 Myspace was coming into its own and Arctic Monkeys took full advantage of it.  They were well known in the underground scene.  When that bomb hit, they were a well oiled machine.  Their debut single ‘I Bet You Look Good on the Dance Floor’ was always going to be a hit.  Such was the confidence of the band that they recorded the music video live.  I can’t think of a single other act that has done that in the history of MTV.

Noel Gallagher, with typical modesty, declared that they were the first band to appeal to the youth since Oasis.  They were hot stuff.  Middle aged journalists scrambled to be associated with the four lads from Sheffield.  Gordon Brown thought he was hilarious when he claimed he was more interested in the Arctic Circle than the Arctic Monkeys.  This was just proof though of how far they had reached.  To be mentioned in the Houses of Parliament.

The Mercury Prize is one of the highlights of the music world’s calendar.  It is notoriously difficult to predict who is going to win, with the judges typically debating right up until the announcement.   But in 2006 there was never any doubt.  One of the people on the panel said that they just kept on saying ‘What is the best album of the year?’ it was no more a subjective choice, it was fact.

While they were being widely patronized, how could these working-class kids be so well cultured?  They dropped the second single ‘When the Sun goes Down.’  They sung about what it was like to be young and disillusioned.  Just as Amy Winehouse would do on her album Back to Black, they used Alex Turner’s way with words to document Sheffield’s twenty-year old’s life.

Later at the Brit Awards Alex Turner would deliver one of the speeches of the decade, it is known as the the ‘That Rock and Roll’ speech.  You don’t see the boys in the tabloids.  But Alex Turner has knowingly created a persona that he brings out in interviews and concerts.  I think he’s probably pretty down to earth.

What does the record mean to me?  I admire it and understand its quality and originality.  While I don’t connect with it really on an emotional level I love listening to a slice of life in the mid noughties.