Oh those Cheeky Arctic Monkeys!

As many readers will be aware, this will be my third foray into the world of the Arctic Monkeys and I am happy to admit that they never cease to amaze me with their continual stream of edgy indie/punk tunes and their unrivalled success of late. To date I have not written a single word reference whether or not I actually like the band, instead I have looked at them both as the bright sparks set to ignite the punk scene and also as an enigma that could easily go pop. I can clear this up and say that I love them and purchased their album the moment it was released last week. Beyond their music I am still really impressed with the genius and imagination that went into a three year marketing campaign which finally paid off just last weekend when it was announced that they had taken the title of fastest selling record in British music industry history. In seven sweet days they had sold 360,000 copies and stolen the record from Hear’ say who set the bar 5 years earlier. Industry analysts have drawn comparisons between the success of this Sheffield 4-piece and a certain liverpudlian 4-piece who single handedly swept the 60’s, though I fail to recall their names; the bugs or the spiders or something like that! Furthermore they look set to have the first million selling album of 2006 and are presently outselling the rest of the top 20 put together. Even the former Verve front man, Richard Ashcroft, with a very respectable 75,000 copies was lagging way behind.

The true imagination was the driving force behind the success of their marketing campaign. They didn’t set out to target billboards or HMV stores but instead they pursued those who are the grass roots listeners of British alternative. They handed out innumerable demos and published them on the internet; next step, they rerecorded, renamed and reengineered these same songs in readiness for album release. This meant that fans had no choice but to buy the album because it was something new and if there is one group you can rely on to purchase your album it is the solid fan base you have built up over three years.

Despite this initial success I do still have some misgivings. I can’t shake the fact that maybe the band won’t stay together and that the demands placed on them to deliver will simply be too great. As it stands they have pressed one disk in three years with the independent Domino label who I am sure gave them as much artistic lee way as they wanted; and rightly so I believe, as they have produced a sensational and gutsy album jam packed with rebellious, streetwise lyrics and melodies. But almost invariably there are going to be some bigger industry fish circling and smelling all that money. Imagine the scene when Sony have made an offer that the Domino execs can retire on and suddenly the Monkey’s are over run with sound engineers who insist on ripping the heart out of the music and they are on a “5 year 5 album” contract; then I worry that the band’s rebellious streak which has energised their recordings and live performances may be channelled into self destruction. In general I have little sympathy with anyone who joins the music industry because everyone is just there to make a quick buck and stab someone in the back but I think it would be a genuinely sad loss, if an over fed label got their jagged claws into them and tore them apart.

Fall Out, Sell Out and Move Out

While musing on the subject of which article to write to bring in Ryan’s musical New Year, and shelving the urge to tell the Boss exactly what I thought of Devils & Dust, I asked a mutually fanatical music friend about whom to review and they suggest “Fall Out Boy”. The story being that her daughter had fallen so head over heals for them she flew all the way to Dublin to see them and upon returning immediately purchased Astoria tickets for two weeks later. Now with the strength of this recommendation and a number of lagers I thought lets go wild and purchase their album on I-tunes, because i'm bound to like it, right!?! All I can say is that I am presently in the process of drafting a letter to Steve Jobs in which I intend to express my deepest thanks for the 30 second track previews which saved me an entire €9.99; This is money I now intend to burn, as this seems to be a some what more worthy course and less painful waste of my money.

Of course though in order to express my opinions I did need to have some full length listening material to work on (or be worked over by I should say) so I asked a friend if he could send me some. His immediate willingness to do this and the somewhat evil smile that accompanied made me call into question our friendship and as payback I intend to send him Leonard Cohen’s “Dear Heather”; that will teach him a lesson!

In the planning of this article I have managed to while away nearly two hours on nothing in particular beyond putting off having to listen to full 3 ½ minute Fall Out Boy song, but the time eventually arrived and in hindsight I lamented never being able to reclaim that time.

Now I should point out that the music is not of the lowest quality and the band are clearly not totally musically inept but there are just certain things about them that really grate with me. Firstly the most annoying thing is the drumming. The song “Chicago Is So Two Years Ago” does cut in with a melodically pleasing and gutsy guitar riff; but the drum track makes the entire song feel like it is being pushed 10 beats quicker that it should be. I wonder if they played the old school boy trick of telling the drummer the wrong metre and just letting him get on with it; because, hey, he probably cant hear anyone but him self anyway. Assuming the drummer can’t hear the rest of the band is not so hard to believe in this instance because it is consistently too loud; a perfect case in point is “Grand Theft Autumn” where the staccato tom-tom off beats blunderingly puncture the prevailing melody line. Now later on in the same song it is obvious that someone had the good sense to signal him to shut up but his response was to continue upsetting people just with a cymbal instead; al la stupid fat kid in the school marching band. Further fallacies on a cymbal occur into “Saturday” where the drummer simply jammed in a few cymbal shots on the bell on the most inopportune beats. By all means in a drum solo use the range of the instrument but when your role is to keep time then just accept it and get on with it; frankly if your drummer cant keep one rhythm together for a minimum of four bars in a row then just get a drum machine, they talk back a lot less and don’t throw their sticks with anything like the accuracy or venom of a real drummer.

Now before the rest of the band wipe their collective brow and say “at least we can keep time” I suggest they stop right there, because you guitarists are not entirely exempt from rhythmical blame. Now if I may refer you back to the opening to “Grand Theft Autumn” the guitar line sets of at breakneck speed across an actually pretty classy time structure where they alternate between bars of 4/4 and 3/4; but the fact is, it is so hard to pull off and to make the time distinction sound clear and controlled that it doesn’t even reflect badly on them for not quite nailing it; in fact kudos deserved for actually trying it. Though in saying that maybe it is something that should be saved for live performances in which listeners are on the whole less critical and album stuff should be controlled, well mixed and clear to try and keep the anally retentive brigade off their case. The real strength among the guitars is a truly wide variety of riffs either played on both guitars for rock emphasis or sometimes they use contrasting rhythms to add interest and depth. Each track is packed full of guitar variety from crushing 2-5-1 progressions to jabbing bar chords to complex counter movements melded nicely together. In effect it is understandable that when you insist on experimenting, not all riffs are going to be so successful but the intro of “Grand Theft Autumn” where each bar seemingly trips up and on to the next was really like cold steel to the brain.

My extremely mixed views continue to the vocals. On the whole the lyrics, and the guys voice, are a redeeming factors for Fall Out Boy; but then he pulls something stupid which makes you scream at the stereo “What are you doing!?! You sound great as an emotive rich rock singer just stick to it!” My principle gripe is that he frankly spends too much time singing unaccompanied; I am all for variety of speed and depth but on occasion I felt his solos took the wind right out of the band’s sails. The worst of the worst on this front, and deserves to suffer public ridicule, is the opening to “Where is your boy” this style vocal intro should have been dead and buried when Pentangle pulled it in 1988 with “When I Was In My Prime”. In fact Wagner said that in composition there were always two alternatives; either to write something new or repeat something that had been done before; now he probably imagined it to be implied, that when you do chose to repeat something, it shouldn’t ever be something that was shitty first time a round.