1.24.2010

Take it On the Chin


Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not by Arctic Monkeys


To be honest, there's always been something off-putting to me about hyped up music. In the words of Elliott Smith (since he is much more coherent about this subject than I am): "The only kinds of music that I don't listen to is whatever is popular RIGHT NOW. Even though it might be great, I just don't feel like it. The fact that something is really everything just somehow puts me off. I don't know why that is. I guess being in the music....um, business.... or something is like being in high school where everybody is trying to be cool and you wish that you could just graduate from high school and not have to deal with all the little put-downs that people give each other and everybody trying to be the most popular guy in the school."


Which were my exact sentiments about the Arctic Monkeys. And I don't think that I was mistaken either; listening to the album now, for the first time, I still don't feel like I'm missing out on anything four years later.


Not to say that these songs are trash. The album's subject matter largely takes place on the dance floor, and mostly has to do with hooking up with girls, under age drinking, and cleverly thrown insults on others in the music industry.


Best tracks would be "Fake Tales from San Francisco", "Riot Van" and "Mardy Bum".




Oh, and P.S. I'm boring myself too.

2 comments:

russeru said...

I wish the Arctic Monkeys were considered popular or "hyped up" around here. There are probably less than a dozen kids in my high school that have even heard of them, much less actually like them.

However, most of the music they like deals with the same subject matter as this album, but accompanied by hip-hop beats or screaming unfortunately. (ie Hollywood Undead)Incidentally I'm also very put off by the vast majority of popular music.

PS: I enjoy "When the Sun Goes Down" as well.

amda said...

Wow, the majority of the students at my high school used to listen to "decent" music. We had our fair share of hyped up music, like Panic! At The Disco before the rest of the nation caught up to us, Arctic Monkeys and Bloc Party.

I honestly enjoy the album, but it's definitely not one of the top albums I would prefer to listen to, only if I really felt in the mood for background upbeat music.