Favourite Worst Nightmare by Arctic Monkeys

Bands that manage to carve out a proper career, i.e. one that can be measured in years rather than records, tend to have a choice of methods by which to achieve this. First, the Coldplay method: Make an unobtrusive entry to the world with an understated, excellent record, then follow it up with a stadium-sized behemoth of equal quality, with enough single to get known, then reproduce it. Second, the Radiohead method: Release one song which takes over the world for a while, release it on a sub-standard debut record. Then, proceed to disown that record and

take over the world with a second, dazzlingly good record (bear in mind that this requires a dazzlingly good second - and third - record). Thirdly, there is the Live option: Release a solid first record, a classic second record, then slowly fade into obscurity/up your own arsehole. That said, they've been around for over 12 years, so they've done ok.

Or, the Arctic Monkeys' option. Their entry to the music world was unique enough; web-based promotion par excellence, coupled with a fresh, exciting, and, most importantly, really fantastic debut record, they hit unprecedented heights, and managed to get their name on the lips of almost everyone who cared who they were (and plenty who didn't). So the question stands: what to do next? Well the answer is out, and it certainly isn't what anyone expected. First, the new album was out little more than a year after the first, and second, it's uniquely wilful and independent. Favourite Worst Nightmare could easily have been a rehash of their wonderful debut, but instead, it's measured, mature and balanced. The funniest thing, though, is that there is still a clear intent to keep things upbeat. Slow songs remain a rarety, however, the subject matter is darker, hooks are suddenly almost non-existant and the 'drop-out' (when everything stops except for the vocals or one instrument), which the Monkeys proved they were so good at last time, is used sparingly at best.

'Do the bad thing/Take off your wedding ring', off Do the bad thing is a far cry from tales of hookers, dodgy bouncers, sleazy tools at the pub and tales of young men trying to get their ends in. However, it's all very natural and amazingly dignified for a band that could so easily have fallen into the celebrity trap, believed their own press, and vanished into high-profile obscurity. That they haven't combined with this record, is an indication of the brains contained in their four 20 year-old heads.

That said, this record does lack the urgency, vitality and sheer excitement of Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not, but it's still pretty loody good. And more importantly, it is a fair indication of the talent, nous and longevity the Arctic Monkeys possess. If Favourite Worst Nightmare is an indication of things to come, I think we can expect a wonderful career from these lads.

3 1/2 stars

Good songs

Good songs have been many this year, and normally I refrain from compiling a list of the best of them, but for some reason I feel compelled to - so here's the top 11 (I just couldn't pick the last one, so call it a tie for tenth).

11. Welcome to the Black Parade - My Chemical Romance
Emo comes of age! Despite containing a verse so awful and mind-numbingly boring I nearly switched off before the song finished, The Black Parade contains the most awesome, Queen-inspired musical excess this side of Muse with a chorus that practically demands all listeners to pump their fist in the most convenient direction (generally up) with force and repetition.

10. I Want You So Hard (Boy's Bad News) - Eagles of Death Metal
Containing far and away the best guitar solo of 2006, this positively stinks of sweat and rooting. And it's SO great. Stealing blatantly from 60s hit 'Summertime Blues', EoDM have ripped it a new arsehole, greased it up and stuffed it full of god knows what. Rock on.

9. Ta Doleur - Camille
The French Bjork came out of nowhere in Australia with this piece of quasi electro/quasi vocal gymnastic, totally cool piece of avant-garde-ism. Camille actually makes farting noises and still sounds in tune. Amazing. And so danceable.

8. When the Sun Goes Down - The Arctic Monkeys
Followed closely by unknown classic off the same record 'From the Ritz to the Rubble', 'When the Sun Goes Down' is everything that is great about the Monkeys' debut encapsulated in 3 minutes and 20 seconds. Tales of whores and pimps on the streets of Sheffield, cockney lyrics, references to Sting and the Police and the BEST riff in about 5 years, magic in its simplicity, if 2003-2005 were the years when the likes of Franz Ferdinand and Bloc Party brought rock back to the dancefloor, 2006 told the new wave to fuck off and let the Monkeys work.

7. One Better - Les Claypool
Funk - circa 2006 for Mr Claypool. Dispensing with extraneous instruments (i.e. guitars), Les decided he could do more on HIS 6-string than an army of budding Van Halens and created the quirkiest and coolest release since Primus. 2006's best song about the Space Race.

6. {Explain} - Sarah Blasko
Sarah Blasko threatened to make a classic on her debut, and delivered with this moody piece of operatic drama-ballad, despite the appalingly pretentious parentheses. Clarinets and oboes must be the most under-utilised instruments in the world.

5. Mojo - Peeping Tom
The most subversive pop single since Gorillaz' Clint Eastwood took everyone by surprise in 2002. With Mike Patton's crazy beat-boxing and the smoothest jazz/pop style around, it's probably the most under-rated song of the year.

4. Black Swan - Thom Yorke
Singers need to learn to swear as well as Thom Yorke does. When he says 'this is fucked up/fucked up/this is your blind spot/it should be obvious/but its not' you know he damn well means it. Like the best Radiohead songs of recent years, Black Swan finds the elusive balance between electronic experimentalism and old school rhythms and melodies. Terrific, heartfelt and morbidly depressing. Just how we take him.

3. Dirtywhirl - TV on the Radio
No song title has ever captured to perfectly both the sound and the 'feel' of a song as this one. Swirling guitars, a thumping, tribal rhythm and a vocal melody that you can't help shouting along with ('Commander!/Controller!/I found you!'), TV on the Radio are the shit.

2. One Crowded Hour - Augie March
It's not experimental. It doesn't break taboos, push envelopes or blaze trails. It's just a song. But for a band to take what has been done a million times before and do it this well is deserving of high praise. Glenn Richards' standard poetic, convoluted lyrics are driven along by pure beauty of sound before a climax that belongs in a porn film.

1. Sixteen Straws - The Drones
Reworking an old Australian convict shanty - 'Moreton Bay', a tale of hardship within the penal colonies - shouldn't be this good. Driven solely by a plucked acoustic and gentle harmonica, the tale of a prisoner and his Faustian pact with 15 other convicts belongs in the annals of Australian musical lore, as bloody as Nick Cave and as touching as, well, it shouldn't BE touching, but somehow it is. Not for a second over its nine-minute running time does it let your attention falter. Expect to find yourself short of breath.

Honourable Mentions
I feel Like Going Home - Yo La Tengo, Roscoe - Midlake, Chips Ahoy - The Hold Steady, Juicebox - The Strokes, Assassin - Muse, Go-Go-Gadget Gospel - Gnarls Barkly, 19 20 20 - The Grates, Not Yet - The Veils, On Your Living Room Floor - Ground Components, This Mess - Wolf & Cub

2006!

Well, as it's fast approaching the New Year, and by now, pretty much anything good that should come out already has, making space on the shelves for numerous pop starlets and fading rap-rockers to release best-ofs that successfully compile the cream of careers that span 2 (maybe 3) records. As a result, I feel confident enough to release my top ten records for 2006, figuring that anything that comes out now that might make the list, I probably won't have time to listen to.


So, straight into it:

10. The Hold Steady - Boys and Girls in America
Pure soulful, intelligent, verbose and genuinely touching ROCK. The Hold Steady confirm their reputation of being the hardest drinking, hardest rocking rhodes scholars on the rock scene today. Have I said Rock enough? This record is rock as rock should be. Rock.





9. Yo La Tengo - I am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass
Would have made this list on the strength of the title alone, thankfully Yo La Tengo have backed up such wonderful inventiveness on the cover with THE record for musical eclectics everywhere. Equal parts bouncing pop ('Beanbag Chair', 'Mr Tough', 'The Weakest Part') psychadelia ('Pass the hatchet, I Think I'm Goodkind', 'The Race is On Again', 'Daphnia') and swirling beauty ('I Feel Like Going Home'), IANAOYAIWBYA has something for everyone. And it's all great.


8. Peeping Tom - Peeping Tom
God Bless Mike Patton. The man who can keep pop music fun, interesting and still very, very good! While few songs this year have come out that are better than lead single 'Mojo', Peeping Tom truly comes into its own when Patton's now famous collaborations kick in. Be it Dan the Automator, Danger Mouse, or a kick-arse Norah Jones, there is always a surprise around the corner.




7. Ground Components - An Eye for a Brow, a Tooth for a Pick
Fun, individual and with two of the year's best covers, along with the years best hip-hop/rock crossover, Melbourne's Ground Components have rewarded the patience shown by local fans in taking several years to launch a debut by putting out such a wonderfully inventive and totally cool record. We will see more of them.

6. Thom Yorke - The Eraser
Let's face it. We were all terrified that, left to his own devices and without the O'Briens and Selways of the world to say 'No Thom, that just sounds weird', Yorke would make music that sounded, well, weird. How wonderful it was to be surprised with a record that, while including the now-trademark skitters, glitches and scratches, also had some of the most glorious melodies, soaring harmonies, and one of the world's sweetest voicest at the peak of its powers. We can only hope next year's return to Radiohead will be as rewarding.

5. Muse - Black Holes and Revelations
Wow. The bigger, louder and more apocalyptic Muse get, the better they seem to be. While perhaps not topping the insane magnificence of 2000s Origin of Symmetry, BH&R displayed Messrs Bellamy, Wolstenholme and Howard showing almost every other band in the world that whatever they did, Muse probably did it better. From the ultra-sexified 'Supermassive Black Hole' to the thrash-metal-with-melody 'Assassin', the flamenco styled 'City of Delusion' and everything in between, Muse continue to conquer the world, one cataclysm at a time.

4. Augie March - Moo, You Bloody Choir.
Bugger me, it's been a great year for album titles, hasn't it. While The Augs have begun to flirt with commercial success to match the almost orgasmic rapture of the critical set, this hasn't resulted in any dilution in quality. While not as wilfully absurd and brilliant as 2002s Strange Bird, Moo, led by (one of the songs of the year) 'One Crowded Hour' continued to pave the way for Aussie bands to make smart, adult music that has no shame wearing its intellectual heredity on its sleeve.

3. The Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not
While it would be so easy to take the uber-cool, NME option and turn on these lads from Sheffield, the beneficiaries of a hype-machine never before witnessed - anywhere - (and hopefully nowhere else ever again), another listen to their debut record confirms that it is, in fact, a dead set corker. Witty, punchy and with great melody and attitude, The Arctic Monkeys have, irrespective of the hype and the inevitable backlash, made one of the best albums of 2006.

2. The Drones - Gala Mill
You either love or hate Melbourne's The Drones. (Speaking of which, 3 Melbourne bands in the top ten! I'm not particularly parochial...actually yes I am, this is AWESOME!) And I love them. Steeped in Australiana, soaked in booze and misery, and buried under a pile of bush poetry and murder ballads, Gala Mill is utterly unfashionable and amazingly potent. 'Sixteen Straws', the tale of murder and survival in Australian convict settlements, is one of the most bloody, savage and heart-rending portraits of Australian history ever recorded. Imaginative, alive, dramatic and powerful, Gala Mill is one of the best Australian records in years.





1. TV on the Radio - Return to Cookie Mountain.
I still don't know what the title means, but who cares. Return to Cookie Mountain is so full of amazing, mid-blowingly good music that it hardly matters, and there's no point trying to list highlights. Ditching the drum machines, picking up a rhythm section and bucketloads of pathos, emotion and groove, TVOTR have made a record for the ages. Art Rock as it should be. Brilliant.

Honourable Mentions:
Sarah Blasko - What the Sea Wants, the Sea Will Have, The Presets - Beams, Joanna Newsom - Ys, The Grates - Gravity Won't Get You High, Bob Dylan - Modern Times, Camille - Le Fil, Beck - The Information, Midlake - The Trials of Van Occupanther.