Humbug

Arctic Monkeys always on the top

Arctic Monkeys rushed into the indie-rock premier league all of a sudden, without a knock on the door, without an invitation card. Still, the music lovers were extremely happy to have such guests. The first long player by the English musicians with the long and awkward name Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not instantly turned into a perfect sample of British rock and was considered by many experts a main candidate to the title of the year’s best release. The year’s only? The NME magazine named this work one of the most notable events in the entire history of the industry, which is far more than a compliment. After such an impressive start, Arctic Monkeys showed no signs of exhaustion or slowing down as they released in a year another awesome effort, Favourite Worst Nightmare, musically stronger, yet commercially weaker than the debut work. With two wonderful albums recorded, the young musicians found themselves in quite a situation. Their subsequent long player should preserve the enchantment of the previous two, yet, at the same time, add to their music something of its own, something new and, consequently, interesting to the listeners, who, in their turn, anticipate from Arctic Monkeys nothing but a piece of art. Well, a piece of art it is! The band presented their third album late in the summer of 2009 under the title Humbug. The fresh record is likely to blow away the flowers of Arctic Monkeys.

New music of the same quality

The first thing you’re sure to notice is going to be the change in the sounding. Of course, it’s still indie-rock: how could they leave it anyway? Yet the execution manner has gone through a number of transformations. You can hear it already on the opening track, My Propeller, beginning with hurricane-like drum work. It then gives the leading part to Alex Turner’s vocals, still the main diamond in the band’s music collection. Sure’ this doesn’t mean that the instrumental aspect here is just to fill the emptiness. For instance, Dance Little Liar catches the ear with its unsurpassed guitar play forming a tune that will immediately captivate your heart. A perfect example of seamless unity of lyrics and music is a composition called Crying Lightning. The tension here is rising as Turner’s uttering his extraordinarily nice verses, and then it’s followed by the emotional breakdown with juicy guitar riffs and excellent combination of bass and drums. You have to admit that the lads have done a great job working on the general slant of the whole album and mood of each separate track in it. Compared to the first Arctic Monkeys works that were easy and quick to perceive, which made them a listener’s favorites just at once, Humbug requires attention and comprehension. Just like a book that demand reading between the lines, this album urges you to find the concealed notes between the chords. The album’s last thin is another composition that takes time to understand, The Jeweller’s Hands. Here Arctic Monkeys play with psychedelic music a bit, yet the status of the band allows the musicians to do whatever they want. Moreover, experiments make their music even better.

Humbug: another gorgeous record in the flawless discography of the band

Sure, Humbug is a definite step away from the course that the musicians were following while making their first two albums. You will find here some musical ideas that are not characteristic of this ensemble, and feel new emotions. Many tended to state that the hard labor over the previous records sucked out of Arctic Monkeys all their efforts and creative thoughts. Humbug is a convincing reply to such an opinion. Or is what we like to think? It just could be that Arctic Monkeys have already proved everything to everybody and now are occupied with doing what they like. When they liked recording drive-ridden concert-favorite songs, we used to receive from them material of this type. Now that these men prefer to focus on the meaningful side of their music, we have a more profound and many-faceted work. Nevertheless, in both cases, we enjoy top-quality indie-rock. Judging by what we have observed, this band have released three powerful albums in three years to showcase that they have creativity and energy enough to make a whole lot of remarkable record. It is a mystery when we will have the chance to test their subsequent attempt, but we are sure not going to waste time while waiting. Humbug won’t keep us bored certainly.