Day 0970 - Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not

Arctic Monkeys “Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not” (2006)

I remember first encountering Arctic Monkeys via their video for “I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor” and not being impressed.  From vocalists Alex Turner’s intro “Arctic Monkeys... don’t believe the hype” (it just seemed like a humble brag, like ‘yeah there’s hype around us, but we’re like whatever’) to the throwback 1970s garage-rock style they were playing and the accompanying lo-fi late 70s/early-80s retro look to their Strokes-esque performance video.  It all smacked of effort masquerading as ‘we don’t care’.  

The songs worked their way under my skin though, and the song “Teddy Picker” from their second album really turned my opinion of them around, and I eventually embraced this album.

While it is less diverse than their later releases, and is definitely in that retro, garage-revival vein, with guitar ranging from trebly-and-jangly to distorted-and-raucous; there’s lots to recommend the album.   Whether it’s the propulsive punky energy of “I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor”, the lazy funky groove of “Fake Tales of San Francisco” or the speedy, tight arrangement and zingy lyrics of “You Probably Couldn’t See for the Lights but You Were Staring Straight at Me”.   Alex Turner would improve in leaps and bounds as a lyricist but "When the Sun Goes Down" was already a great narrative and some good word-smithing.

Day 0797 - the Bends

Radiohead "The Bends" (1995) - got it

The heady days, before many Radiohead fans became insufferable snobs who crapped over the bands they perceived Radiohead to have influenced.  When Radiohead themselves were just "that band who sang Creep" with everyone waiting to see if they could follow up their 'hit'.

While the bleeps and bloops of "Kid A" are often pointed out as the big change in direction for Radiohead, arguably their first few albums all displayed fairly major stylistic shifts.   "The Bends" saw the band move away from their straight-ahead alt-rock to a more densely nuanced, melodically sophisticated sound, but still with more of a rock-guitar sound than follow-up "OK Computer" would have.

The band worked more collaboratively on songrwiting and arranging, instead of creating a wall of guitars, they played with arrangements that put together different parts for each of the three guitarists that worked together.  In some places the sound was still dense, like on single "Just" a bit of a favourite of mine, and something of a good middle point between their rock sound and their intelligent melodic directions.  Elsewhere, they stripped things back on songs like the acoustic, atmospheric "Bullet Proof... I wish I was" and album-closer "Street Spirit (Fade Out)".... damn, actually Radiohead always have the best album-closer tracks.

Most of the tracks start small and build their arrangements, as can be heard in songs like "Fake Plastic Trees", "My Iron Lung" and "Nice Dream".   

An argument could be made for this being the album where Radiohead really found their sound, with that more melodically sophisticated vein being mined; but you could also argue that Radiohead are another of those good bands who never quite fix on their sound and are constantly trying to forge new ground.