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Label = [[Domino Records|Domino]]<br /> |
Label = [[Domino Records|Domino]]<br /> |
Producer = [[Jim Abbiss]] and [[Alan Smyth]]|
Producer = [[Jim Abbiss]] and [[Alan Smyth]]|
Reviews =
Reviews = 5* From Kane and Ryan

*''[[AbsolutePunk]]'' (89%) [http://www.absolutepunk.net/showthread.php?t=119278 link]
*''[[Allmusic]]'' {{Rating|3.5|5}} [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:gz6htrpukl7x~T0 2006]
*''[[Guardian Unlimited|The Guardian]]'' {{Rating|5|5}} [http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/reviews/story/0,11712,1684753,00.html 2006]
*''[[The Independent]]'' {{Rating|4|5}} [http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/music/reviews/article339754.ece 2006]
*''[[NME]]'' {{Rating|10|10}} [http://www.nme.com/reviews/arctic-monkeys/7837 2006]
*''[[Pitchfork Media]]'' {{Rating|7.4|10}} [http://pitchforkmedia.com/article/record_review/15243/Arctic_Monkeys_Whatever_People_Say_I_Am_Thats_What_Im_Not 2006]
*''[[Robert Christgau]]'' (A-) [http://www.robertchristgau.com/get_artist.php?id=5600&name=Arctic+Monkeys link]
*''[[Rolling Stone]]'' {{Rating|4|5}} [http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/arcticmonkeys/albums/album/9199780/rid/9359479/ 2006]
*''[[Spin (magazine)|Spin]]'' {{Rating|3.5|5}} [http://www.spin.com/reviews/arctic-monkeys-whatever-people-say-i-am-thats-what-im-not-domino link]
*''[[Winnipeg Sun]]'' {{Rating|4|5}} [http://jam.canoe.ca/Music/2006/02/09/1435528-sun.html 2006]
*''[[PopMatters]]'' {{Rating|8|10}} <ref>http://www.popmatters.com/pm/review/arcticmonkeys_whatever/</ref>
*''[[Drownedinsound]]'' (Very favourable) <ref>http://drownedinsound.com/releases/7014/reviews/587676-arctic-monkeys-whatever-people-say-i-am-thats-what-i-m-not</ref>
*''[[Drownedinsound]]'' (Very favourable) <ref>http://drownedinsound.com/releases/7014/reviews/587676-arctic-monkeys-whatever-people-say-i-am-thats-what-i-m-not</ref>
*''[[The Village Voice]]'' (A-) [http://www.villagevoice.com/2006-03-21/music/radical-comfort/ 2006]
*''[[The Village Voice]]'' (A-) [http://www.villagevoice.com/2006-03-21/music/radical-comfort/ 2006]

Revision as of 10:59, 7 June 2010

Untitled

Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not is the debut album by English band Arctic Monkeys, released on 23 January 2006. The album became the UK's fastest selling debut album, shifting over 360,000 copies in its first week,[2] and remains the fastest selling debut album by a band.[3] It has since gone quadruple platinum in the UK, and won the 2006 Mercury Prize.[4]

The album includes both tracks from the band's original EP, Five Minutes with Arctic Monkeys, as well as their first two singles and UK Number Ones, "I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor" and "When the Sun Goes Down".

Composition and content

The common thematic content of Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not has led to it being considered by some a concept album concerning "the lives of young Northern England clubbers".[5] All tracks record first-person narratives of observations made within this context. "I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor", "Still Take You Home", "You Probably Couldn't See For The Lights But You Were Staring Straight At Me" and "Dancing Shoes" all examine human behaviour in nightclubs. Alex Turner describes "Dancing Shoes" as being about "people always looking to pull when they go out however much they mask it."[6] Other songs examine other aspects of nightlife; "From The Ritz To The Rubble" is an account of nightclub bouncers while "When The Sun Goes Down" was inspired by prostitutes in the locality of their practice room in the Neepsend district of Sheffield[7] Other songs are themed on romantic relationships, such as "Mardy Bum" or youth subcultures, such as "Fake Tales of San Francisco" and "A Certain Romance". In NME's list of top 100 tracks of the decade, "A Certain Romance" was described as "a strangely even-handed song which starts out scorning local townies then appears to absolve them at the end of the song."[8]

Release

Prior to the release of the album, the tracks "I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor", "Fake Tales of San Francisco", "Dancing Shoes", "Still Take You Home", "Riot Van" , "Mardy Bum", "When the Sun Goes Down" (then known as "Scummy" or "Scummy Man") and "A Certain Romance" had been released for free via the internet in late 2004 and consolidated on the unofficial Beneath the Boardwalk compilation.

The original release date was 30 January 2006, but was brought forward to 23 January 2006 due to "high demand". Although the same was done with Franz Ferdinand, it was speculated that the move was an attempt to counter the effects of the album's leak onto online file-sharing sites.[9] The re-recorded album versions had been leaked onto the internet by December 2005.

On the first day of its release, the album became the fastest selling debut album in British history, selling just under 120,000 copies. By the end of the week, the album had sold 363,735 copies - more than the rest of the Top 20 combined and making it the overall fastest selling debut album in British history. Its release in the United States on 21 February 2006 saw it become the second fastest selling debut indie album in history,[10] turning over around 34,000 copies in its first week and achieving #24 in the album charts. The album also went to #1 in Australia and Ireland.

The track "Mardy Bum", while not released as a single, appeared on radio playlists throughout the UK in mid-2006, and is still played infrequently on BBC Radio 1. The track "A Certain Romance" was ranked #90 in Pitchfork Media's Top 100 Tracks of 2006 and cited as the standout track.[11] NME also placed "A Certain Romance" at 10 in their list of 100 Tracks of the Decade.[12]

Name

The album's name was taken from a line from the film Saturday Night and Sunday Morning starring Albert Finney. The name was chosen after Turner recognised similarities between the two works and the appropriateness of the title. He said that "it’s good because the book is called Saturday Night And Sunday Morning and that’s kind of what the album is, so there’s a link there. And also, there’s a lot of people saying a lot of things about us and you don’t have control over it."[13] He also said that "songs including 'The View from the Afternoon', 'Dancing Shoes', 'Still Take You Home' and 'From the Ritz to the Rubble' all cover that bit of the weekend and feature the same character."[14]

Cover sleeve

The image on the cover of the album is a photo of Chris McClure - a friend of the band, frontman of The Violet May and brother of Jon McClure of Reverend and the Makers - taken in the early hours of the morning in Korova bar, Liverpool[13] after the band had given him, his cousin and his best mate, "seventy quid to spend on a night out".[15] The image caused some controversy when the head of Scotland's NHS criticised the cover for "reinforcing the idea that smoking is OK".[16] The band's product manager denied the accusation, and in fact suggested the opposite: "You can see from the image smoking is not doing him the world of good". In March 2006, McClure announced that he would be giving up smoking, due to lack of funds[17], though it has been recently reported that his attempts to do so have failed. Billboard advertisements for the album used a similar image to the cover picture, but without the cigarette.

Reception

The album since its release has received universal acclaim with a Metacritic rating of 82[18] and featuring highly in many year-end lists and being hailed as a modern classic.[19] Many critics and figures in the British Media hyped the Arctic Monkeys and their rapid rise to acclaim through unconventional means[20][21][22] and some even cited the Arctic Monkeys as revolutionising the way people find music as they built a fanbase on the basis of a few demos shared by fans through the internet.[23] NME declared them "Our Generation's Most Important Band" and Alex Turner's lyrics and depiction of Sheffield and the night lives of teenagers in particular praised with him being labelled as a "master of observation"[24] and USA Today claiming "you probably won't hear better CD all year long" and calling it "utterly infectious".[25] MusicOMH wrote that it was the sort of guitar rock that "makes you fall in love with music all over again" and along with many other critics cited "A Certain Romance" as the standout track and as being "a wonderfully articulate dissection of youth culture that belies Turner's tender years". It was however, noted that some of the tracks which had previously been released on the internet as demos had lost some of their quality and "don't sound as good".[21]

Awards

In 2009 the album was voted the 9th greatest album ever by MTV from an online poll voted for by fans. [1]

Singles

Track listing

All lyrics are written by Alex Turner except stated; all music is composed by Arctic Monkeys

No.TitleLength
1."The View from the Afternoon"3:38
2."I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor"2:53
3."Fake Tales of San Francisco"2:57
4."Dancing Shoes"2:21
5."You Probably Couldn't See for the Lights but You Were Staring Straight at Me"2:10
6."Still Take You Home - (Jamie Cook)"2:53
7."Riot Van"2:14
8."Red Light Indicates Doors Are Secured"2:23
9."Mardy Bum"2:55
10."Perhaps Vampires Is a Bit Strong But..."4:28
11."When the Sun Goes Down"3:20
12."From the Ritz to the Rubble"3:13
13."A Certain Romance"5:31

Charts

Charts (2006) Peak
position
UK Album Chart 1
Australian ARIA Albums Chart 1
Austrian Albums Chart 23
Belgium Albums Chart 19
Canadian Albums Chart 46
Danish Albums Chart 16
Finnish Albums Chart 8
German Albums Chart 1
Irish Albums Chart 1
New Zealand Albums Chart 15
French Albums Chart 17
Japan Album Chart 9
Netherlands Album Chart 13
Swiss Albums Chart 15
Swedish Albums Chart 26
Italian Albums Chart 40
US Billboard 200 24

Sales

  • UK – 1,200,000+ – 4x Platinum
  • USA – 305,000 [26]
  • Japan – 103,734 Gold
  • Australia – 70,000 Platinum
  • Canada – 50,000 Gold [27]
  • France – 49,000
  • Argentina – 100,000 Platinum
  • Denmark – 20,000 Gold
  • New Zealand – 7,500 Gold
  • Worldwide – 2,310,000

References

  1. ^ http://drownedinsound.com/releases/7014/reviews/587676-arctic-monkeys-whatever-people-say-i-am-thats-what-i-m-not
  2. ^ "Arctic Monkeys make chart history". BBC News. 29 January 2006.
  3. ^ Leona Lewis's 2007 album Spirit became the outright fastest selling debut album upon its release in November 2007.
  4. ^ "Arctic Monkeys win Mercury prize". BBC. 5 September 2006.
  5. ^ "Arctic Monkeys: Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not : Rolling Stone". Rolling Stone. 21 February 2006.
  6. ^ "Arctic Monkeys' debut album in their own words". NME. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  7. ^ Petridis, Alexis (13 January 2006). "Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not Review". London: The Guardian. Retrieved 2009-07-21. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  8. ^ http://www.nme.com/list/100-tracks-of-the-decade/158050/article/159115#article
  9. ^ "Arctic Monkeys album rush released". NME. 5 January 2006.
  10. ^ "Arctic Monkeys make chart history". BBC. 29 January 2006.
  11. ^ Pitchfork Feature: The Top 100 Tracks of 2006
  12. ^ http://www.nme.com/list/100-tracks-of-the-decade/158050/page/10
  13. ^ a b NME.COM - Arctic Monkeys - A Scummy Man and Mardy Bums: The ultimate Arctic Monkeys Album Guide
  14. ^ "Monkeys explain album". Yahoo! News. 9 January 2006.
  15. ^ Wichelow, Sam (9 February 2006). "Familiar face?". BBC News - South Yorkshire.
  16. ^ "Arctic Monkeys defend album cover". BBC News. 3 February 2006.
  17. ^ "Arctic Monkeys Cover Star Quits Smoking". Entertainmentwise. 29 March 2006.
  18. ^ http://www.metacritic.com/music/artists/arcticmonkeys/whateverpeoplesayiamthatswhatimnot
  19. ^ Sanneh, Kelefa (30 January 2006). "Teen Spirit: Arctic Monkeys Observed in the Wild". The New York Times.
  20. ^ Petridis, Alexis (13 January 2006). "Arctic Monkeys, Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not". The Guardian. London.
  21. ^ a b http://www.musicomh.com/albums/arctic-monkeys_1205.htm
  22. ^ http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/497-whatever-people-say-i-am-thats-what-im-not/
  23. ^ Barton, Laura (25 October 2005). "The question: Have the Arctic Monkeys changed the music business?". The Guardian. London.
  24. ^ http://www.nme.com/reviews/arctic-monkeys/7837
  25. ^ Sanneh, Kelefa (30 January 2006). "Teen Spirit: Arctic Monkeys Observed in the Wild". The New York Times.
  26. ^ "Arctic Monkeys Win UK's Mercury Prize". Billboard. 5 September 2006. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  27. ^ "Gold & Platinum Certification". Canadian Recording Industry Association. August 2009. Retrieved 2009-09-24.
Preceded by UK number one album
29 January 2006 – 25 February 2006 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Australian ARIA Albums Chart number-one album
27 February 2006 – 5 March 2006 		Succeeded by
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