| Product Summary | | Label: DOMINO/ADA | | UPC: 00801390008627 | | Release Date: 2/21/2006 | | Buy.com Sku: 202233796 | | Item#: M2TCPQ | | Buy.com Sales Rank: 25140 | Format:  CD |
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| | A stunning debut... Musically, there are bits of The Stone Roses, What's The Story Morning Glory, and Nevermind. However, as catchy as those reference points are, it's really the songwriting that has won the band a fiercely dedicated following; a mix of the observational storytelling of Davies and Weller crossed with the harsher documentary eye of Mike Skinner of The Streets and "Ghost Town" era Specials. Already this album is the fastest selling British debut of all-time. Recently the magazine NME compiled its list of 100 greatest albums EVER to mark Britain’s "musical renaissance" and guess who turned up at number 5.
Top 20 Greatest British Albums Ever
1. The Stone Roses – The Stone Roses
2. The Smiths – The Queen Is Dead
3. Oasis – Definitely Maybe
4. Sex Pistols – Never Mind The Buzzcocks
5. Arctic Monkeys – Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not
6. Blur – Modern Life Is Rubbish
7. Pulp – Different Class
8. The Clash – London Calling
9. The Beatles – Revolver
10. The Libertines – Up The Bracket
11. Radiohead – The Bends
12. The Specials – Specials
13. The Verve – A Northern Soul
14. David Bowie – Hunky Dory
15. Primal Scream – Screamadelica
16. Dexy's Midnight Runners – Searching For The Young Soul Rebels
17. The Streets – Original Pirate Material
18. Franz Ferdinand – Franz Ferdinand
19. The Smiths – Strangeways, Here We Come
20. The Beatles – Rubber Soul
 Watch the video for "When The Sun Goes" now:
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Also listen to "Fake Tales Of San Francisco" on the Domino Audio Player now:
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"The latest kings of England are the Arctic Monkeys, four lads who got guitars for Christmas in 2001, mastered them quickly, toured the country and handed out home-burned CDs of songs..." TIME Magazine
| | Album Notes and Credits |
Notes & Personnel Info |  | Arctic Monkeys: Alex Turner (vocals, guitar); Jamie Cook (guitar); Andy Nicholson (bass guitar); Matt Helders (drums). | | Audio Mixer: Jim Abbiss. | | Recording information: 2 Fly Studio, Sheffield, England; Telstar Studios, Munich, Germany; The Chapel Studio, Lincolnshire, England. | | Photographers: Andy Brown ; Alexandra Wolkowicz. | | Reportedly the fastest-selling debut in British history at the time of its early-2006 release, the Arctic Monkeys' WHATEVER PEOPLE SAY I AM, THAT'S WHAT I'M NOT is a brash, hook-filled album that immediately warrants music fans' attention, if perhaps not all of the pre-release hype. Clearly taking notes on the evolution of U.K. punk, the Sheffield-based band reveal the influence of revered predecessors such as the Jam and the Clash, while most notably evoking the Libertines in their youthful, hood-rat persona. On this hyperactive 13-track set, singer/guitarist Alex Turner is armed with an arsenal of sharply observed middle-class narratives (a la the Streets), which are propelled by wiry guitar lines and formidable rhythms that, at times, verge on funk (see Bloc Party). Highlights of this much-lauded disc include the raucous "I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor," the woozy "Riot Van" (one of the record's few quieter moments), and the lurching "When the Sun Goes Down." Like Franz Ferdinand's scruffier (and considerably less effete) kid brothers, the Arctic Monkeys prove that the hyperbole of the U.K. music press occasionally has roots in an impressive reality. | | Breathless, hyperbolic praise was piled upon the Arctic Monkeys and their debut album, Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not, an instant phenomenon without peer. Within the course of a year, the band rose from the ranks of an Internet phenomenon to the biggest band in the U.K., all on the strength of early demos circulated on the Web as MP3s. Those demos built the band a rabid fan base before the Monkeys had released a record, even before they played more than a handful of gigs. In effect, the group performed a complete run around the industry, avoiding conventional routes toward stardom, which paid off in spades. When Whatever People Say I Am hit the streets in January 2006, it sold a gob-smacking 118,501 copies within its first week of release, which not only made it the fastest-selling debut ever, but it sold more than the rest of the Top 20 combined -- a remarkable achievement by any measure. | | Last time such excitement surrounded a new British guitar band it was a decade earlier, as Britpop hit overdrive with the release of Oasis' 1994 debut, Definitely Maybe. All four members of the Arctic Monkeys were a little bit shy of their tenth birthday at the time, a bit young to be sure, but old enough to have Oasis be their first favorite band. So, it's little surprise that the Gallaghers' laddism -- celebrating nights out fueled by lager and loud guitars -- is the bedrock foundation of the Arctic Monkeys, just the way as it has been for most British rock bands since the mid-'90s, but the Monkeys' true musical ground zero is 2001, the year the Strokes stormed British consciousness with their debut, Is This It. The Arctic Monkeys borrow heavily from the Strokes' stylized ennui, adding an equal element of the Libertines' shambolic neo-classicist punk, undercut by a hint of dance-punk learned from Franz Ferdinand. But where the Strokes, the Libertines, and Franz all knowingly reference the past, this Sheffield quartet is only concerned with the now, piecing together elements of their favorite bands as lead singer/songwriter Alex Turner tells stories from their lives -- mainly hookups on the dancefloor and underage drinking, balanced by the occasional imagined tragic tales of prostitution and the music industry. | | Whatever People Say I Am captures the band mashing up the Strokes and the Libertines at will, jamming in too many angular riffs into too short of a space, tearing through the songs as quickly as possible. But where the Strokes camouflaged their songwriting skills with a laconic, take-it-or-leave-it sexiness and where the Libertines mythologized England with a junkie poeticism, the Arctic Monkeys at their heart are simple, everyday lads, lacking any sense of sex appeal or romanticism, or even the desire for either. Nor do they harbor much menace, either in their tightly wound music or in how Turner spits out his words. Also, the dry production, sounding for all the world like an homage to Is This It -- all clanking guitars and clattering drums, with most of the energy coming from the group's sloppy call-and-response backing vocals -- keeps things rather earthbound, too; the band doesn't soar with youthful abandon, it merely raises a bit of noise in the background. | | In a way, Whatever People Say I Am is an ideal album for the Information Overload Age -- nearly every track here is overloaded with riffs and words, and just when it's about to sort itself out, it stops short. But even if it's an album of and for its time, Whatever People Say I Am doesn't sound particularly fresh. After all, the Arctic Monkeys are reworking the sounds of a revival without any knowledge -- or even much interest -- in the past, so they wind up with a patchwork of common sounds, stitched together in ways that may have odd juxtapositions, but usually feel familiar, because they're so green, they repeat the same patterns without realizing they're treading a well-worn path. | | This, of course, doesn't make them or their debut bad, just surprisingly predictable: they're competent, lacking enough imagination or restlessness to do anything other than the expected, which for anybody who hears them after reading the reviews, is quite underwhelming. The one thing that sets them apart, and does give them promise, is Alex Turner's writerly ambitions. While he may fall far short of fellow Sheffield lyricist Jarvis Cocker, or such past teenage renegades as Paul Weller, Turner does illustrate ample ambition here. While his words can be overcooked -- allusions to Romeo & Juliet do not necessarily count as depth -- he does tell stories, which does distinguish him from his first-person peers. But it's a double-edged sword, his gift: the very thing that sets him apart -- his fondness for detail, his sense of place -- may be the quality that makes his work resonate for thousands of young Britons, but they also tie him completely to a particular time and place that makes it harder to relate to for listeners who aren't in his demographic or country (and perhaps time). If his band had either a stronger musical viewpoint or more kinetic energy, or if their songs didn't play like a heap of riffs, such provincial shortcomings would be transcended by the sheer force of the music. But the music, while good, is not great, and that's what makes Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not a curiosity that defines a time when niches are so specialized and targeted, they turn into a phenomenon overnight and last just about as long. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine | | Breathless, hyperbolic praise was piled upon the Arctic Monkeys and their debut album, Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not, an instant phenomenon without peer. Within the course of a year, the band rose from the ranks of an internet phenomenon to the biggest band in the U.K., all on the strength of early demos circulated on the web as MP3s. Those demos built the band a rabid fan base before the Monkeys had released a record, even before they played more than a handful of gigs. In effect, the group performed a complete run around the industry, avoiding conventional routes toward stardom, which paid off in spades. When Whatever People Say I Am hit the streets in January 2006, it sold a gob-smacking 118,501 copies within its first week of release, which not only made it the fastest-selling debut ever, but it sold more than the rest of the Top 20 combined -- a remarkable achievement by any measure. | | Last time such excitement surrounded a new British guitar band it wa |
Producer: Jim Abbiss; Alan Smyth; Jim Abbiss; Alan Smyth |
Engineer: Ewan Davies; Jim Abbiss; Alan Smyth; Andreas Bayr; Ewan Davies; Jim Abbiss |
| | Artist Overview | | The U.K. music scene is notorious for launching previously unknown bands to the heights of stardom on word-of-mouth gossip and music-press hype alone. Arctic Monkeys took that phenomenon to an entirely new level when they sold 110,000 copies of their 2005 debut LP, WHATEVER PEOPLE SAY I AM, THAT'S WHAT I'M NOT, in the first two days of its release. An undeniably accessible (and bankable) mix of Brit Pop, U.K. punk, and hip-hop swagger has led fans and critics to dub them the next Oasis. |
| | Compilation Appearances |
| | Associated Artists and Works |
| | Technical Info | | Release Date : 02/21/2006 | | Original Release Date : 2006 | | Catalog ID : 86 | | Label : Domino Recording Company USA (USA) | | Number of Discs : 1 | | Studio/Live : Studio | | Mono/Stereo : Stereo | | SPAR Code : n/a | | UPC : 00801390008627 |
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| | Professional Reviews | | Rolling Stone (p.87)
- 4 stars out of 5 -- "The unassuming foursome of nineteen- and twenty-year-olds specializes in propulsion, momentum and repetition -- in succinct riffs and snarly, wordy lyrics..."Rolling Stone (p.104)
- Ranked #17 in Rolling Stone's "The Top 50 Albums Of 2006" -- "[G]arage-punk nuggets built in the grim steel town of Sheffield." Spin (p.62)
- Ranked #03 in Spin's "The 40 Best Albums of 2006" -- "Beneath the scenester cool and post-Pavement guitar fuzz. WHATEVER PEOPLE SAY I AM is exuberant teenage garage pop..." Entertainment Weekly (p.60)
- "Guitars and drums ricochet off each other; riffs are bounced around like soccer balls. With their kicky hooks, the songs owe more to Warped Tour thrashers than to stoic post-punk inspirations..." -- Grade: A- Q (p.126)
- Ranked #1 in Q Magazine's "100 Greatest Albums of 2006" -- "[B]ristling with energy and plugged into the era's social conditions and colloquialisms." Uncut (p.86)
- 5 stars out of 5 -- "Alex Turner's breathless delivery is faultless, a foaming cocktail of lust and longing, occasionally brimming over into Costello-esque rage." Mojo (Publisher)
(p.102)
- 4 stars out of 5 -- "Fashion and hype be damned -- this is thrilling, incontrovertible evidence of a major new talent in our midst." Mojo (Publisher)
(p.56)
- Ranked #82 in Mojo's "100 Modern Classics" -- "Arctic Monkeys delivered a debut bristling with Modish urgency and teenage angst." Clash (magazine)
(p.74)
- "[T]here really was no doubt that in this modern punk and hip-hop inspired vignette of reality bites, and Northern colloquialisms, the Monkeys had defined the zeitgeist..." |
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| | Bio | | | Arctic Monkeys
Maybe you’re about to read this and find out about a band called Arctic Monkeys. Or maybe you already know more about them than 1,000 words could ever convey. Maybe you downloaded their songs months before record companies cared and maybe you were grabbed by the sudden urge to drive for half a day just to see them play. Maybe you picked up one of the demos they handed out at early gigs, memorised every word and bellowed them back at them during their next gig. Maybe you were one of the kids who’s taken up surfing across Monkeys’ crowds as a full-time hobby. And maybe you’ve also ended up with a permanent monitor-related injury because of it.
Because unless your definition of success rests on how many private yachts you can afford, Arctic Monkeys were already massive way before they inked a deal with Domino in June 2005. People obsessing over the songs? Sold-out gigs full of stage-diving nutcases? Hardcore fans pressed up against venue windows, just hoping to catch a glimpse? Such checkpoints have all been ticked.
“What’s happened has been proper hysterical,” grins lead singer/guitarist Alex Turner, acknowledging the hurricane of hero worship his band have been swept up by in the last few months. “If I say ‘phenomenon’ it sounds like I’m right up my own arse, but we’d be daft to act like we didn’t realise how incredible the last year’s been. When it all started we were like ‘fucking hell, what’s going off here?’”
Of course, it was guitars that started it all: two of them, given to Alex and Jamie Cook as Xmas presents just three years ago. The pair began practising furiously – some might say competitively - before Andy Nicholson (bass) and Matt Helders (drums) joined the throng.
The boys may share a love of The Smiths, The Clash and The Jam (and sure, Jamie may boast a healthy passion for Oasis, System Of A Down and Queens Of The Stone Age) but in no way were The Monkeys ready to simply regurgitate the well-trodden Brit-rock path. Rather, they spent their school days listening to Roots Manuva, Braintax and other stuff on [UK hip hop label] Low-Life, not to mention Lyricist Lounge compilations and Rawkus Records cuts like Pharaoh Monch. Another unique influence was Mancunian poet John Cooper Clarke, who Alex is a huge recent fan of.
“He’s this dead skinny guy with big mad hair, red tinted glasses and drainpipe jeans, a proper character,” raves Alex. “Everyone tells us we’ve got a shit band name but he was like ‘That’s great! There’s no trees in the arctic! How would it survive?’ He painted this picture instantly, a real creative mind!”
Hence the razor-sharp lyricism that fuels songs like ‘A Certain Romance’, a witty observation of small-town life where “there’s only music so that there’s new ringtones” and where going out could sometimes mean having a pool cue wrapped around your head. Elsewhere, there were grim tales of girls who’d ended up on the streets (“She don’t do major credit cards, I doubt she does receipts” – ‘Sun Goes Down’) and glorious swipes at the rock’n’roll clones that arose on the back of the great garage rock boom of 2002 (“Yeah I’d like to tell you all my problems/You’re not from New York City, you’re from Rotherham” – Fake Tales Of San Francisco).
This was life in satellite-town England, as cutting and observant as anything you’d hear from Mike Skinner. But it wasn’t always like that.
“Lyrics were a dark patch,” admits Alex. “Nobody wanted to admit they wrote them so we kept trying other singers so they’d do it for us. But I'd secretly been writing since school and I enjoyed it. I just never told anyone because I didn’t want to have piss took out of me!”
Even with their poetic obstacles overcome, it was a year before the Monkeys dared venture onto a stage. Why? It had to be perfect. And by the time they played their first gig at The Grapes in Sheffield, it was. People went berserk and the band walked offstage thinking they might just be onto something. A few gigs later and they found themselves playing Sheffield Forum, in front of a crowd who knew words that Alex hadn’t learnt properly yet. They couldn’t understand it, but there was a reason their fan base had been swelling: the demos they’d been handing out for nowt at gigs in true DIY punka style.
“I used to work in a bar at venues and it really annoyed me when bands would say ‘We’ve got CDs for sale at the back, three pound each’,” says Alex. “You’d think ‘Fuck off, who do you think you are?’ We had this one time where people were literally running up to the stage clambering for these demos, a right frenzy, and we were thinking ‘Fucking hell this is cool’.
With demos doing the rounds, across the web and at gigs, bizarre things started happening. Bizarre things like turning up for gigs in Wakefield to be greeted by hardcore Monkeys fans who’d driven from places as far away as Aberdeen. And when the band played the Boardwalk at the start of this year they were greeted with the entire crowd singing the lyrics to ‘When The Sun Goes Down’, a song that’s never been released (at the time of writing this, the band have released just one single).
Alex: “I had to stop playing, I were pissing meself! It just erupted into this thing. We had people crowd-surfing and landing on monitors. In Manchester this kid came flying over the crowd and his cheek just smashed on the side of the stage. Another kid came over and just rolled across, a perfect land like a gymnast. But best is when everyone’s just bouncing.”
In the space of a few months, word-of-mouth buzz had spread in a way the industry couldn’t keep up with.
“Before the hysteria started, labels would say ‘I like you, but I’m not sure about this bit, and that song could do with this changing…’ We never listened. And once it all kicked off we didn’t even worry about it anymore. In London, the kids were watching the band and the record company were at the back watching the kids watching the band.”
And, naturally for a band who’ve never once sat and contrived things, questions of the ‘where next’ variety are met with a shrug: “People already proper care about the music, before it’s even finished. You can see it in their eyes and nobody can take that away from you. I guess it can still get bigger, though. Instead of hundreds of people singing the words, it could be thousands. Does that feel any different, I wonder?”
Maybe like you, he’s about to find out.
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