Arctic Monkeys: Suck It and See
Turns out the bludgeoning desert rock these normally nimble
Brits turned in on 2009’s Humbug was just an aberration. Phew. Main Monkey Alex
Turner weds quip to hook with far too much finesse to settle for brawn alone. A
bit of Humbug’s heaviness remains, but it comes with the sorts of angular guitars
and turns of phrase that marked the band’s surprisingly durable 2006 debut
Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not. And Turner, always precociously
self-aware, is beginning to do genuine feeling almost as well as come-ons and
kiss-offs. “Love Is A Laserquest” maps the moment young people start feeling
old with a cartographer’s precision, and the title track—it’s British slang for
“give it a try,” in case you were wondering—suggests that Turner may go on to
write the sorts of wry love songs that become standards. If, for now, it sounds
like he’s still a few genuine feelings away from that, give him time. Four
albums in, he’s still only 25, and getting deeper. B+
Old 97’s: The Grand Theatre, Volume Two
How is Rhett Miller, who has built a long and fruitful career
out of using train mishaps as metaphors for romantic dysfunction, just now writing
a song called “I’m A Trainwreck”? Everything here sounds like something the
97’s could have, should have, or actually have done before, and your degree of
affection for the band will determine whether you describe this little brother
to last year’s Volume One as freewheeling or merely stitched together. The two
volumes should have been edited down to one, sure, but the keepers here prove
this is still one of the few bands whose live chemistry translates to record,
and Miller more than meets his quota for lyrical jewels: “He said, ‘Can I buy
you a drink?’/What he meant was, ‘Can I buy you?’/Yeah his eyes were pits of
despair/But his accent recalled the bayou.” That’s almost as good as “I keep
turning up The Wedding Present/You’re too tired to turn me down/Well you’re
probably gonna tell me that this sounds a little adolescent/But counting me
there’s 1.3 million lonely people in this town.” You barely notice that sly
little ‘counting me’ the first time around, which is exactly how Miller wants
it. B+
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