The second album of the indie-rockers from Sheffield was released in 2007 and it’s definitly worth listening to. When the first riffs of “Brianstorm” sound, you may be strongly reminded to their debut “Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not”. But it is obvious that the Arctic Monkeys developed themselves, the lyrics about the nightlife from northern England have passed away for impressions from touring around the globe.
The first part of the LP shows the whole musical strenght of the band. After the opener “Brianstorm”, “Teddy Picker” is also optimal balanced amongst Alex Turners fast lead vocals, the voice of drummer Matt Helders and the significant lead-guitar by Jamie Cook. The beginning to “Balaclava” then is a terrific interplay of bassist Nick O’Malley and Alex Turner, who describes the experiences of wearing a balaclava. Afterwards the record continues with his highlight, “Fluorescent Adolescent” is a brilliant song about the come of age. Actually, that’s funny, because I don’t know how to stop being childish.
However, Turner wrote this song with his then-girlfriend and they describe how they have changed since they were young. “Discarded all the naughty nights for niceness” or “remember when you used to be a rascal” match this query quite good.
After this excellent start, the individual tracks are sinking a bit in passivity of accumulation of guitar riffs. Some songs try themselves in melancholy, but in the end everything melts into a pabulum, until the record is finished with “505”. Miles Kane plays addiotnal guitars and contributes to this wonderful piece of music, which risks to drop into melancholy and lethargy, but at the moment the song is about to overturn, Nick O’Malley begins with his bass and at the next critical point, Alex Turner shows that he’s got a really great voice and blasts the room out of complete silence. Wonderful.
Overall I’d say that the Arctic Monkeys defintively made a worthy follow-up to their debut. Sometimes faster, but also deliberate as their first LP, “Favourite Worst Nightmare” is a album, which’s highly recommendable.
This Thing Called Music 