Arctic Monkeys - AM ALBUM REVIEW

I’d like to throw this cover into the fray of one of the most recognizable cover arts of the 2010s.


Alright, this may be a surprising revelation to some, but I’ve never heard an Arctic Monkeys album in its entirety. Sure, I’ve heard a couple of songs and most of their last album, Tranquility Base Hotel + Casino, but never a whole project. The only song I’ve heard from this project, AM, is “R U Mine?,” which I think is a pretty good song. To my knowledge, AM is considered to be the sellout album in Arctic Monkeys’ discography, and that’s mainly why I decided to pick this as my first dive into the group. On top of their first album in four years releasing this Friday, I figured now would be a better time than ever to finally see what this group’s about. Let’s get into AM.

I’ll say this off the bat: you can tell that most of these were singles or really wanted to be. Six of these songs were singles, that’s half of the album. It’s not as bad as the last Joyner Lucas album where there were more singles than new tracks, but it’s just never a good sign to me. Fortunately, a lot of these tracks are catchy as hell. I absolutely loved the opening track, “Do I Wanna Know?”, and nearly the entirety of the first half is just banger after banger for me. I wasn’t a fan of the slower tracks like “Mad Sounds,” though, mainly because I just found them more boring when the heavier tracks have that groovy feel to them. I also think the production across the board is very nice too. Every instrument crackles in the mix yet doesn’t overpower the vocals at all. I really just feel tricked by the first two songs, you know?

Arctic Monkeys and AM has apparently been influential on indie rock for the past almost-decade since it’s been out, and when I think about it, I kind of hear it in a few artists now. I mean, sure, I get why people call it a sellout album, but it’s better than a lot of more recent “sellout” albums. I just really enjoyed the sound of AM, at least the heavier stuff in the first half. I can totally understand why you’d think it’s a little boring if you’re more engulfed in the indie rock scene, but I think AM is perfectly serviceable as a rock album. Based on how goddamn popular this album is, I can’t be the only one that thinks this.


7/10


Listen here

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Apple Music

YouTube




AM is a Domino release.

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