Arctic Monkeys
Humbug
Rating: 3.5/5.0
Label: Domino/Warner Bros.
Is it just me, or are the Arctic Monkeys the most problematic band despite their consistently good albums? Their boffo-selling Whatever Say I Am, That's What I'm Not had them labeled "overhyped," and so they spitefully came out with the superior Favourite Worst Nightmare, a rollicking, snotty two-fingered salute to sophomore slump.
With Humbug, the inevitable "new direction" album, we have Arctic Monkeys traveling to our humble colonies to work with Josh Homme, famous for being the frontman of Queens of the Stone Age and for trying very hard to be Dave Grohl by also being in 12 other bands. That makes me a bit nervous, but half of the album was produced by James Ford, who worked on Favourite Worst Nightmare, so maybe they'll retain some of their Arctic Monkeys-ness.
British indie bands, let's please be careful recording in the United States. I fear some of you will lose the Britishness that makes me like you more than your American counterparts. Take Maxïmo Park, whom recorded their latest in Los Angeles, threaten to drift ever closer to overproduced sterility. Conversely, Art Brut recorded their battle with Satan in Oregon, but they're a band that was already fully cooked with Album #1 and did the thing over a period two weeks with Frank Black's oversight. We can't all be Art Brut.
Humbug may be the album where people can finally turn on the Monkeys, as "new direction" albums so often are. It's a less guitar-driven affair than their previous efforts, with Homme's production smothering the guitars in favor of Alex Turner's voice. It sounds like the worst idea on Earth for a band like Arctic Monkeys, whose debut single, "I Bet You Look Good on The Dancefloor," was beautiful raucous noise. But, for some reason, they seem to have wanted to make a darker, moodier album that opens with "My Propeller," a Morrissey pastiche about lead singer Alex Turner's dick - "My propeller won't spin/ And I can't get it started on my own" -- and there's your hint that the Arctic Monkeys aren't completely gone from Humbug.
What the band has done is dialed back their signature musical style but retained their lyrical brattiness. "Crying Lightning" features a completely absurd opening couplet ("Outside the cafe by the cracker factory/ You were practicing a magic trick") while the album standout "Dangerous Animals" has the band spelling out the title in the chorus -- a dumb cliché that works for the song as if by black magic.
I say black magic, of course, because Nick Cave is all over this album. "Pretty Visitors" is a rocking mash-up of vintage Arctic Monkeys ("Which came first/ The chicken or the dickhead?") seemingly snuck in by The Bad Seeds (organs? In an Arctic Monkeys song?), while album closer "The Jeweler's Hands" is one of the moodiest tracks on the album. Its title alone made me check to see if it wasn't originally on The Boatman's Call. And, if you happen to have the Japanese edition of the album, you'll find yourself listening to a classically Arctic Monkeys rendition of "Red Right Hand."
A Nick Cave-influenced Arctic Monkeys record. We've landed in Bizarro World, boyos, and it ain't as bad as you think.
by Danny Djeljosevic