This coming April I will finally get a chance to see Arctic Monkeys live. I've been listening to them non-stop since I bought the tickets and thought it would be nice to kind of look at my "history" with Arctic Monkeys.
Let's go back to 2006, around the time the Monkeys released their first album. I was living in Germany at the time and decided to take a trip to London for a week of relaxation and sight-seeing. The glory of living in Europe was that you could get into bands that are huge there but aren't necessarily that popular in America (Kings of Leon being one). Arctic Monkeys was the band that everyone in England and Europe was talking about. One night at the hotel I watched a British music show (Jools Holland? The Brit Awards? I can't remember...) and the Monkeys performed. And I was hooked. I ran out and got their first album the next day and that became my album of 2006. "Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not" is one of my top 5 albums of all time and one of the few that I can consider to be truly "perfect". Luckily I wasn't the only person who caught "Monkey fever", as most of my friends had bought the album as well and became just as big a fan of them as I did.
Songs like "Mardy Bum", "When the Sun Goes Down", and of course the classic "I Bet You Look Good on the Dance Floor" are all songs that fit the period I was in: all about girls you can't have, places you can't go, and generally what it's like to be at an odd age. It also helped that the songs were all super fast and super fun to play (as a drummer, mimicking the drums parts to these songs is somewhat simple and oh so fun). So to put it simply, no other album was played as much as this one that year and is still one I listen to all the time.
On to 2007 when they guys released their second album "Favourite Worst Nightmare" to my super-excitement. I was glad I didn't have to wait very long to get my hands on some new Monkeys tunes and was really glad that the album turned out great. While it might not be a great as their first, it still has everything that I love about the band: super fast and super catchy hooks and beats, and some really great lyrics. This was my last year in Germany, and my two best friends and I cruised around all that summer cranking this album over and over, and "Favourite Worst Nightmare" became the official album of summer 2007.
Arctic Monkeys did a good job of releasing a few songs and EPs between releases to keep me busy until their next full length, but nothing could prepare me for their third album, "Humbug". It's produced in part by Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age and it shows. "Humbug" is much darker and much slower than the band's previous two albums, but that still isn't a bad thing. I had to get used to the new, more mature sound, but once I did I realized that there is a really good album here. "Crying Lightning" and especially "Cornerstone" are great tracks and show how much the band has come from their early, Brit-punk days. You can read my semi-review of the album here if you want.
So there you have it. I've been following Arctic Monkeys from the beginning and will follow them no matter what. Being able to see them perform live will be great, and I will have a full report about that show after it happens.
I'll leave you with the band performing one of my favorite songs:
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