Arctic Monkeys - AM

"You're not from New York, you're from Rotherham", Alex Turner famously sang in Arctic Monkeys' 2006 song Fake Tales Of San Francisco. But 7 years on from Arctic Monkey's high octane debut, the band have Americanised with their fifth album, AM. Since the release of Whatever People Say I Am That's What I'm Not, Arctic Monkeys have seemingly done all they can to shake off the shackles off their northern roots. Over the past few years, the lads have emigrated to LA, swapped the Adidas for leather, and quiffed up.
AM is Arctic Monkeys first record since 2011's Suck It And See, and the Americanisation of the band is apparent. AM sounds sleazy, and sexy, and quintessentially Californian. Listening to it takes you on a musical journey, summoning thoughts of the sleazy bars you get by the side of American highways. With AM it seems Turner is trying to lose the image he once had as a cute lad from Sheffield, much like Miley Cyrus trying to get away from Hannah Montana imagery.
But is the act convincing? Yes, and no. AM has it's high and low points. At times, it seems almost like Turner and co fit the shoe of leather clad American bikers, but all too often AM sounds a bit like it's wearing a faux leather jacket from Primark. The smooth, sexy album opener 'Do I Wanna Know' is one of The Arctics' best hits yet, completely bursting with the lyrical brilliance Alex Turner is known for. But then on the flipside Mad Sounds is just like a Sainsbury's Basics version of Lou Reed's Walk On The Wild Side, and by no stretch of anyone's imagination could 'One For The Road' be considered anything other than half-arsed and lackluster.

The album's 3 singles, 'Do I Wanna Know?', 'R U Mine' and 'Why'd You Only Call Me When You're High?' are the highlights, each one sounding convincing and worthy of single status. The album's other high, high points are 'Arabella' and 'I Wanna Be Yours', the latter of the two being a version of John Cooper Clarke's classic poem which Turner first encountered in GCSE English, and the former being the album's highlight. Arabella is the album's most seductive, sleazy point, as Turner describes Arabella- the girl who wears interstellar gator-skin boots, and a cheetah skin coat while she wraps her lips 'round her Mexican Coke. The song builds up, into a slightly grungey guitar solo, whilst the lyrics make it the album's most formidable song.

But despite the album's assets, it features a lot of filler, and the album's second side is almost all thriller, no killer, and the bizarrely named Number 1 Party Anthem is every bit as tacky as the title suggests, meaning side 1 ends in the same way side 2 starts.Mad Sounds, which sounds like an early Lou Reed song, gives side 2 a slow, dull start. Side 2's other lowlights include Snap Out Of It, which sounds just like a rejected James Bond theme, and like most rejected James Bond themes it's easy to see just why they're 'rejected'.

So all the banging bangers that litter the first side, and the end of the second side are balanced out, if not outnumbered by the mediocre space fillers, meaning that AM is by no means a great record. But despite this, it has a Cali charm in places meaning it certainly isn't a bad record. AM is a good album, but definitely an album of a band past their career peak, and beginning to 'lose it'. 

Rating: 7/10
Out: Now (Released 9/9)
Stand Out Tracks: 'Arabella', 'Do I Wanna Know?', 'Knee Socks'