Review Summary: A rather mature comeback from the ever-popular Sheffield band.
With nearly ten years experience under their belt, the Arctic Monkeys clearly know their way around the music industry. Numerous tours, albums and singles only helped their cause. In my hometown of Sheffield, the origin of the band, there was much hype for this specific album.
There are some standouts on the album. "R U Mine?" stands out as one of the most prominent tracks on the album, with a catchy guitar riff that was very memorable. The majority of the tracks on the album were also good. None of them stood out as particularly bad. They all just seem to blend together after a while, as they all seem to have almost identical backing music, with none of the other songs standing out. Even "Do I wanna know?" and "Why'd you only call me when you're high?" seem to have the same sort of general sound and tempo.
This album sounds original, and much more matured than the band's previous work, and it is. The sound is less alt-rock and more psychedelic-rock. The band has changed subtly since their debut, and have stripped back on lots of tracks on the album. Simple percussion and bass help highlight the "less is more" feel, which is a complete curveball when we compare this to the debut.
The problem with this album is the repetition. On first listen, this album is decent. You can't fault it, it's completely different to what we've heard of the band before. When listened to over again, you start to realize that the album is more monotonous. It's incredibly average. The band have changed their music subtly, though have done very little varied songwriting here.
I can't say this is at all a bad album. It is a rather good comeback from the previous album, and has a rather interesting feel to it. However, seeing what the band are capable of, this album feels like a slight let-down.
