The Arctic Monkeys certainly haven’t disappointed us; a second album just over a year since their last one was released and a bunch of EPs in the meantime. Still, there’s not a song on their new album that seems rushed in the slightest. If anything, it all feels a little deeper and more thought-out than their debut album. That said, the Arctic Monkeys are no Radiohead; they’re main purpose and reason for such massive success is that they can make fantastically catchy tunes with a stack of brilliant, witty lyrics to go with them. That was what made them such a success in the first place and it’s what they’ve done this second time round in order to keep us hooked in our millions.

The first single from ‘Favourite Worst Nightmare’ was Brianstorm and it provides a good look at how a large chunk of the songs on this album sound. Despite being beaten to number 1 in the charts by a pair of women dancing around like sluts, the Arctic Monkeys’ success has clearly not faded; it would seem that everyone I’ve spoken to in the last two days has bought the album and is currently loving it. After the fast and slightly-heavier-than-usual guitars of Brianstorm, which is a marvelous track but by no means the best on the album, the thumping drums of Teddy Picker step in to take us into the unknown. As usual, the lyrics here are brilliant and provide some utterly irresistible sing-along moments. The line “D’you reckon that they make ‘em take an oath? That says ‘we are defenders, of any poseur or professional pretender around” is probably the best example of this.

It seems that the first half of the album is very much the catchy, potential-single part of the new release but when we arrive at track 6, Only Ones Who Know, this signifies a transition into the newer and more experimental tunes. When I say ‘experimental’ I’m not saying these are revolutionary music techniques but it’s the stuff that sounds the least like ‘Whatever People Say I Am…’ Tracks such as This House Is A Circus are just brilliant, though, and it has a very appropriate sound of fun house/fair ground keyboards whirring away in the background providing a slightly eerie feel to this song. Old Yellow Bricks, too, has another thundering drum line with some of my favourite sing-along lyrics on the whole album. A small sample of this is when Turner is singing “You are the fugitive/but you don’t know what you’re running from/you can’t kid us/and you couldn’t trick anyone/Houdini, love, you don’t know what you’re running away from“.

Back before the transition comes Fluorescent Adolescent, perhaps the album’s best track and the one that’s guaranteed to be the new Mardy Bum. The typical ‘Monkeys lyrics appear to be telling the story of an middle-aged woman looking back on the good ‘ole days of when “You used to get it in your fishnets/Now you only get it in your nightdress“. It’s an amazing tune and, as I said, is probably the one track that highlights the brilliance of this new album.

Overall then, the Arctic Monkeys have toyed with new ideas; from Balaclava with some Red Hot Chili Peppers-like guitar riffs and the midway ballad of Only Ones Who Know, but they certainly haven’t sacrificed those cheeky, witty and entertaining lyrics that made their debut one of the best albums of last year. They’ve even followed a developing tradition and put a number song in there (stunning finale, 505, follows suite from Bloc Party’s Waiting For The 7.18 and The Strokes’ 12:51 - to name but a few). The fact that they haven’t stayed away from trying new sounds is what makes this such a standout sophomore album that’d be hard to beat for so many of the other indie bands that appeared last year. Yet another notable point is the speed at which they’ve released this, just like it was back in the day. My betting is that it’s going to be a little while before some of the other bands in the class 0f ‘06 are releasing their dreaded second album. Just another thing that makes the Arctic Monkeys such a special band.

B.

Album Rating: 9/10