VIDEO: Arctic Monkeys - My Propeller

Calm down boys, it's not carnival season just yet...

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Singles of the year 10-1

1.Wild Beasts- Hooting and HowlingTwo years in a row, two singles of the year titles for Wild Beasts. I honestly didn’t think they’d ever top 2008’s ‘The Devil’s Crayon’ but to be quite honest I could pick three or four songs from ‘Two Dancers’ which are better than anything else released this year. ‘Hooting and Howling’ is my favourite though. The first song we got to hear from the Lake District bands second album it boasts a calm and controlled demeanour but you can hear the spiky theatrics and passionate longing just bursting to explode. Lyrically this song is on another level as well. Where else in 2009 did we hear something as unique and special as a man singing, “I’m not saying the lads always deserve a braying, and I’m not saying the girls are worth the fines are paying, we’re just bruised, bored in our bother boots, we’re just bruised clowning round in cahoots.” There are more stunning things about Wild Beasts than I have time to mention but pretty much every single one is packed into the four and a half minutes of eloquent perfection on ‘Hooting and Howling’.

2. Arctic Monkeys- CornerstoneIf you want to get really obsessive over great musical moments one of my favourite from this year has been they way Alex Turner sings the words “Parrots beak” on ‘Cornerstone’. With added emphasis on the final syllable it makes an almost clicking sound, one that is repeated throughout the song. A swooning croon ‘Cornerstone’ is not the song that the critics would have you believe exists on Arctic Monkeys third album ‘Humbug’ but amongst the Homme approved riffs is buried this absolute gem of a song. An instant classic it sounds like a Kinks song given the cinematic Scott Walker treatment and ranks alongside ‘505’ and ‘A Certain Romance’ as one of the very best Arctic Monkeys songs.

3.Bat For Lashes- Daniel

The line ‘When I run in the dark’ from this song is an odd one as I think we all know Natasha Khan rides her bike in the dark. Pop star lies aside this is simply a wonderful slice of 80’s inspired pop from BFL which sounded like everything I’d ever wanted her to sound like and more. Direct and focused yet still pretty beyond belief ‘Daniel’ is the purest moment from the excellent ‘Two Suns’ album and easily one of the best singles of the year.

4.Dirty Projectors- Stillness Is The Move

There are some bands who I really struggle to get into, desperately waiting for the moment they click in my brain and I can appreciate what so many other people hear in them. For a long time it was Radiohead, nowadays it’s probably Animal Collective and you can definitely rank Dirty Projectors in the same category. I hated the Black Flag covers album they recorded and didn’t really dig ‘Bitte Orca’ but ‘Stillness Is The Move’ remains a firm favourite- lodged in my brain for evermore. Thick with layers and playing with the R’n’B template to art-school perfection the Brooklyn band have achieved their perfect moment on ‘Stillness…’.

5.Girls- Lust For Life

I like pizza, I like wine, not too fussed about boyfriends but as simple love equations go I think Chris Owen’s has this one down.

6.Dum Dum Girls- Jail La La
7.Camera Obscura- French Navy
8. PJ Harvey- Black Hearted Love
9. Simian Mobile Disco- Audacity Of Huge
10. The Big Pink- Velvet

Singles of 2009 by BoringByTheSea

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July- September Quarterly Review

July

The Summer months are not particularly great for releases and July started us off with only two really great albums of note. First up there was the Kills/ White Stripes meeting of minds The Dead Weather. 'Horehound' is not a flawless record but when it works it's as good as anything Jack White or Alison Mosshart have achieved in their respective day jobs. Second up, and far better, is the debut album from Florence and The Machine, 'Lungs'. A non stop, bombastic harps and hearts assault it captures the ostentatious nature of it's creator perfectly and has gone on to become a Platinum selling album. No bones about it Florence is now a massive bona-fide popstar.

August

Another relatively quiet month but one which came with 3 of the best albums of the year so far. Arctic Monkeys returned with their third album 'Humbug' and showed their teeth for the first time with a beefed up sound courtesy of producer Josh Homme and the Mojave Desert. Still cryptic of lyric and catchy of chorus 'Humbug shows a new found confidence and a willing to e+xplore the less obvious path which results in tracks like 'My Propellor' and the brilliant 'Pretty Visitors'. Wild Beasts built on their stunning but inconsistent first album with it's follow up 'Two Dancers'. Featuring the brilliant 'Hooting and Howling' and 'All The Kings Men' it's a controlled yet triumphant and emotional journey. Finally we get to The xx. Their self titled album is arguably the best of the year (currently only tipped by Yeah Yeah Yeah's for me). Taking in a disparate range of influences and channeling youthful heartbreak through them all 'XX' is a stunning piece of 3am introspection showcasing some of the most natural and impressive songwriting heard for years.

September

Jamie T released the follow up to 'Panic Prevention' with the brilliant 'Kings and Queens'. The album is good, you know that I know it so who really cares what else I type about it. Other good albums from the month can be found here.

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Don't Call It A Comeback...

After 2 weeks off, things are up and running again. There's been a slight make-over and a re-think, I hope you like it.

As way of catching up below are the best bits from a fragmented August, the albums of the month and links to some reviews I have written recently.

Reviews

Jamie T- 'Kings and Queens'
Pull Tiger Tail- 'PAWS'
Arctic Monkeys @ Brixton Academy live review

August's Best Albums

The XX- 'xx' (Album of the month)
Arctic Monkeys- 'Humbug'
Wild Beasts- 'Two Dancers'
Julian Plenti- 'Julian Plenti Is Skyscraper'
Simian Mobile Disco- 'Temporary Pleasure'

Best of August's Posts

Field Day was a bit wet
Radiohead released two new songs: 'Harry Patch' and 'These Twisted Words'
Words with Simian Mobile Disco
Albums reviews of The Cribs, Girls and The Big Pink.

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Arctic Monkeys- 'Humbug'

Written for Gigwise.com

If a band define the past decade in Britain it must be Arctic Monkeys. Gaining prominence through internet distribution the band were then catapulted into a hype storm the likes the country has yet to see repeated. They did all this with songs documenting the kitchen sink dramas of the modern British teenager: Girls, gigs and getting ID'd, set to a frantic backdrop of witty observations and punks riffs. This deadly combination saw them rise to their deserved status as chart topping festival headliners and emerge in 2009 with celebrity girlfriends, a stadium cramming live show and huge anticipation for album number three 'Humbug'.

If 'Favourite Worst Nightmare' was a slightly more deranged take on the 2006 debut 'Whatever People Say I Am...' then Humbug is a clean slate altogether. The Arctic DNA remains but things have moved on, slowed down and turned in on themselves. The record opens up with 'My Propeller' and it becomes immediately clear that Alex Turner has taken an almighty step up in his game. Speaking in first person Turner begins a theme of the album by admitting his own deficiencies, (“I can't hold down the urgency”). Shunning the external witticisms of old Turner is now channelling his life between the sheets through the Monkey's music and repeats the refrain “My propeller won't spin and I can't get it started on my own.”,code breakers are probably not needed to work out what he is talking about.

The theme of sex and love permeates throughout 'Humbug' from 'Crying Lightning's sticky sweet rhymes to 'Secret Door's tales of seduction equated to discovering a hidden room in a mansion. The carnal nature of these four young men is coming to the fore and Turner's lyrics carry the tales with a sense of cryptic class. A wordsmith like no other his age he twists and manipulates language in such an idiosyncratic way it's hard not to admire the tracks on a purely textual level. This playfulness reaches a head with the retrospective but trashy fun of 'Pretty Visitors' which sees the John Cooper Clarke influence which presides over all Arctic Monkeys material finally reach a glorious conclusion. From the soon to be famous line, “What came first? The chicken or the dickhead?” to the way Turner enunciates the word “Gasp” with extra emphasis on the p it's all a whiskers breath away from 'Evidently Chickentown'- it is also Arctic Monkeys heaviest song to date.

For the heaviness is the other notable factor in 'Humbug'. It certainly lacks the slap and dash cheek of its predecessors but in place is a fuzzy rumble that struts confidently and bulldozes a path littered with anyone who tries to get near it. Much will be made of Josh Homme's production influence but this is something Arctic Monkeys have hinted at for years, go back and listen to the b-side 'If You Found This It's Probably Too Late' from 2007 to hear the birth of this new found sound. Homme has certainly honed the riffs though and beefed them up in a way only a QOTSA member and the Mojave desert can. As ever Matt Helders drumming remains the beating heart of Arctic Monkeys, watch his drums skins during 'Dangerous Animals' and 'Potion Approaching at upcoming gigs for potential destruction. The interim creation of The Last Shadow Puppets also hangs over 'Humbug' heavily. Clearly enamoured by the Walker/ Bacharach inspired project Alex Turner has fed the grandiosity and projection of the duo into his day job and come out with two of his finest moments to date. 'Secret Door' is a bona-fide festival anthem that will unite the masses on a level with 'Mardy Bum' and 'Fluorescent Adolescent' whilst 'Cornerstone' is a Morrissey aping melodramatic ballad melodically reminiscent of The Kinks, as ever though it is undercut with a darkness- this time it's Turner missing his girlfriend so much that he kisses girls who look like her. Certainly one for the gossip columnists.

'Humbug' is a transitional record for the Sheffield four piece. In the same way tracks on their debut album acted as prototypes for their second you get the feeling that this new found strut will evolve into something truly special on album number four. At just ten tracks long the album still has elements of filler ('Dance Little Liar') and there is no single song to rival the majesty of '505' for supremacy just yet. That aside however it is important to remember that Arctic Monkeys are all aged between 23 and 24 and have already created three superb albums. 'Humbug' will challenge anything for album of the year and only occasionally looks pale in comparison to it's own lineage. A bona-fide success from the best British band of the decade.

8/10

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July: Blog Highlights

Rubbish month, too hot, I moved house, I still don't have a sofa. Here's the best of the blog.

Arctic Monkeys debut their great new song and new look. Here

Mercury Prize predictions and nominations.

The Mae Shi split and confused the world. Luckily I found this on a messageboard.

Download the new single from The Big Pink for nothing. Here.

TV On The Radio in Brixton. Here.

Jarvis Cocker auditions for Outnumbered. Here.

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Arctic Monkeys- Crying Lightning

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Arctic Monkeys- 'Crying Lightning'

Arctic Monkeys premiered 'Crying Lightning' the first song from their forthcoming 3rd album 'Humbug' tonight.

The swaggering and ramshackle sound is a new one to AM- can Alex Turner do sexy? And why is he obsessed with sweets? Gobstoppers, pick 'n' mix, red liquorice? The man's a pervert. Still too much of a good thing can of course lead to the 'tooth-ache' he mentions later on in the song. Perhaps his teeth started to rot due to a few girls from.... (Cut- Libel Ed)

Anyway, producer Josh Homme's influence is felt strongly in the hypnotic and enticing guitar solo towards the end and all bodes well for the new album. 'Humbug' is due for release in late August and 'Crying Lightning' is available to download from midnight on Itunes.

What do you think of this new song? Best song they've ever written? The worst? Excited about the new album? Which first single was best- '... Dancefloor', 'Brianstorm' or this one?

Arctic Monkeys- 'Crying Lightning'

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Arctic Monkeys reveal 'Humbug' artwork

Thoughts?

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Arctic Monkeys- Crying Lightning

The first of the new Arctic Monkeys material has emerged online. 'Crying Lightning' was played at the Big Day Out festival that the band are currently on in Autralia. It's a slow burning, almost Western inspired psychadelic track that sounds like a punchier version of 'Only Ones We Know'. Arctic Monkeys currently untitled third album is due for release later on in 2009.

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10 Wishes for 2009

• Great new albums from Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Franz Ferdinand, Maccabees, Gallows, Arctic Monkeys, Metric, Patrick Wolf, Morrissey, Maximo Park, Klaxons, Bat For Lashes and if we're lucky Muse, The Strokes and Arcade Fire.
  
• The Blur reunion is good- not just some bloated middle aged money grabbers playing to a field of idiots yapping on about how good the 90's were and saying "Haha, it's so funny because now I actually do live in a great big house in the country."
• The British underground to keep producing amazing bands. With albums due from Dananaaykroyd and Sky Larkin as well as the emergence of Pulled Apart By Horses and Favours For Sailors things look bright.
• Touting gig tickets at extortionate mark ups to be abolished. In times of financial difficulty audience numbers are bound to drop, the last thing we need is another obstacle in the way.
• Some good festival headliners. Early reports suggest Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young and AC/DC will be the marquee names this Summer. What year is it again? 1984? I will go anywhere in the world if Daft Punk, David Bowie and Radiohead are the weekends main event.
  
• A music based TV show that is not mind numbingly stupid, self conciously 'cool' and musically uninformed.
• Brooklyn and L.A to gift us another set of weird and amazing bands.
• Popular music to be rid of sub-Winehouse copy cats. Sadly as Duffy sold 1.5 million albums in 2008 this looks unlikely.
• Pulp, The Smiths and Pavement to reform. Yeah right.....
• Soulless career bands like Courteeners and Scouting For Girls to fuck of forever please.
  

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