Arctic Monkeys - AM

                                           

“Have you got color in your cheeks?”

If you don’t, you will after listening to AM. This opening line for Do I Wanna Know?  kick starts the album with throbbing desire: a desire that Alex Turner has no trouble weaving into the majority of his songs. AM starts with the post-punk, neo-rock-pop that most Arctic Monkeys fans have come to adore. However, the album takes a slower, softer, turn half way through and begins to mature. Sprinkled throughout are funky melodies, shoo-wops, la-la-la’s, R&B falsettos, and hints of 70’s Glam Rock.

AM seems to mirror the life cycle of a touring artist going through heartache. Thrust into the spotlight at an early age, Alex Turner and his monkeys were only teenagers when they hit it big in the UK. Over the past several years, they've adapted to life as rock stars. However, teen grunge and angst has developed into full blown adult issues. Turner pines for love and its hopeful permanence. The days of being a rolling stone seem to be taking their toll on him. In R U Mine? he cries “In my mind when she's not right there beside me, I go crazy cause here isn't where I wanna be”.

Gone are the days of cheap, romantic lines in (what I assume are successful) attempts to have panties thrown at the stage. Alex Turner’s notorious romance is no longer a façade for the sake of a song. AM is a true and honest portrayal of the struggles and insecurities of a seemingly confident rock star. Turner’s heart bleeds in I Want It All -“Blind faith, Heartache, Mind games, Mistakes, My sweet fireball, My sweet rigmarole, I want it all”.  He’s learning he can’t have his Rock-N-Roll-tight-pants-leather-jacket cake and eat it too.

No. 1 Party Anthem and Mad Sound act as the heavy pull in the center of the album. No. 1 Party Anthem is a tongue-in-cheek title for a slightly tragic ballad about filling empty spaces with paid escorts, clubs, and nothingness - "Call off the search for your soul, or put it on hold again". 

One of my favorites, Mad Sounds, is a track that is sparse and has a western/gospel-like slowness. The lyrics “Love buckles under the strain of those wild nights” pin-points to the struggles of love and its mysterious delicacy. Perhaps this is a song about itself: one being eased by a lullaby - a lullaby to help you “reappear".

AM continues its crooning and questioning towards its end. Why’d Only Call Me When You’re High? Is a break up song about fucked up and desperate phone tags during times of loneliness post-relationship. Knee Socks seems to be a song where Turner begins to play his own therapist and gathers clarity about his broken relationship and where it went wrong: “I got a feeling I might have lit the very fuse that you were trying not to light, You were a stranger in my phonebook I was acting like I knew 'Cause I had nothing to lose”.  

The album unwinds with I Wanna Be Yours and Alex Turner repeating “I wanna be yours” over and over into it's end. Arctic Monkeys decide to leave AM on an honest and ‘say your last words’ note. Overall the album touches on a lot sensitivity that was merely suggested to in prior albums. Take a listen and enjoy monkeys!