Arctic Monkeys
Whatever People Say About Me, That's What I'm Not
Domino

Well, right off the bat Arctic Monkeys get the gold star for best band and album titles of the month. Got that Domino Record deal too, not so shabby. Let's take a spoiler of what it sounds like. I hope it lives up to its names:

"The View from the Afternoon" has a big and exciting guitar sound. There are quick little silent moments thrown in here and there. They might be filled with nothing but a hi-hat, or single guitar tone. They don't last long, maybe a beat, or half a beat. I suppose they're meant to provide a bit of embellishment. It's really a very 90s sound that style-elements like this bring to my mind.

In a lot of ways I'm reminded of a type of music that I used to like a lot more before I met Hampton Sheets. I suppose the best thing the mainstream writers have come up with to call this type of music is post-punk, or i've even seen post-post-punk. Both pretty silly terms in that they really don't make any sense or describe anything at all. But anyway Hampton Sheets HATES this type of music. I'm talking stuff like ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead, Pretty Girls Make Graves, or The Liars. The singing in bands like this almost unwaveringly sucks, but lots of people really just like the sound of the band. It's this really big rock sound that started sometime in the 90s, often containing within it certain teenage sentiments that really endear it to me. Nonetheless, Hampton's long-term influence has made me not listen to Trail of Dead etc as much as I used to. And so there's something personally rubbing me the wrong way about this Domino album.

My best recommendation for this would be a party where you're wearing really tight jeans and possibly doing a little indie-posturing in an attempt to impress your cute boy/girl.

Copyright © 2006 Mateo Orillas