Arctic Monkeys - Humbug

In 2008 Arctic Monkeys' frontman Alex Turner got together with The Rascals' Miles Kane and the Simian Mobile Discos' James Ford to form an awesome side-project called The Last Shadow Puppets. Haven't heard of them? Go download their album The Age of the Understatement. No seriously, if you haven't heard the album you can't read the rest of the review. It's Ok, I'll wait...

Heard it? Loved it? Ok, then we can move on. The album went straight to number one in the UK album charts with the help of Owen Pallett (Final Fantasy, the band not the video game) who was brought in to arrange strings, brass and percussion for the album. You may be thinking to yourself "Why do I care about the Last Shadow Puppets or this Final Fantasy guy?", well smart guy its because this side project ends up being very important to the evolution to the Arctic Monkeys sound.

I'll be honest, when the Arctic Monkeys first exploded onto the scene I didn't really understand what all the fuss was about. Sure they had some catchy songs but they were nothing extraordinary, just an extension of the cookie cutter alt-rock sound that was all the rage. To a degree the Monkeys started to drown in the deep waters already flooded with more distinctive bands such as Franz Ferdinand. They really didn't catch my attention till the release of their second album, Favourite Worst Nightmare, where they started to experiment with a slightly harder edge to their song writing.

With the release of their new album, Humbug, the Monkeys sound has matured into something more experimental, with a darker sound and bleaker subject matter. Produced by Queens of the Stone Age frontman Josh Homme, Humbug is an ambitious album that borrows more from The Last Shadow Puppets and Queens of the Stone Age than their previous albums. The album opener "My Propeller" has Hommes' fingerprint all over it and would be perfectly at home on the Queens last album along side "Turning the Screw".



There are some great tracks on the new album, pay close attention to the sleazy bass lines and fuzzy guitars of "Secret Door" and "Fire and the Thud," the second of which has backing vocals from sultry Alison Mosshart (The Kills/Dead Weather). Both tracks sound right at home with the new blues/indie rock sound spreading with such bands as Band of Skulls and IO Echo. Mosshart and Turner, who are both signed to Domino, have worked together before when she performed with The Last Shadow Puppets on "Paris Summer" for their EP My Mistakes Were Made for You.

The album ends with "The Jeweler's Hands," a slow burning song that echos with Turner's more orchestral sound found in Last Shadow Puppets albums. Arctic Monkey fans may be disappointed at the lack of radio friendly songs on Humbug, with "Potion Approaching" and maybe "Pretty Visitors" being the closest to the old albums sound. However in many ways Humbug is a stronger album than their previous efforts, delivering a richer and more complex music experience. Turner has evolved as a singer while Jamie Cook (guitar), Matt Helders (drums) and Nick O'Malley (bass) all give solid performances. It's obvious that maturity has spread through the band, taking them to new and darker places that get better with repeated plays.

www.arcticmonkeys.com
www.myspace.com/arcticmonkeys

And in case you still don't know who The Last Shadow Puppets or Alison Mosshart are...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5_c8qH9cZo