STACK #211 May 2022

MUSIC FEATURE

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ARCTIC MONKEYS AM

In AlbumTales, Bryget Chrisfield hits you with some juicy nuggets of wisdom surrounding classic records. This month it’s the BRIT Award-winning, Grammy- and Mercury Prize-nommed, moody, broody and groovy fifth album from Sheffield upstarts Arctic Monkeys: AM. Words Bryget Chrisfield

Year 2013

Monkeys aping ...Pigs During live performances, Arctic Monkeys often sandwich a thrilling filling of War Pigs by Black Sabbath within their own snarling, ‘70s-posturing rocker Arabella to acknowledge the homage. This standout AM track also boasts peepshow-worthy flashes of alluring

that now and get it out of the way. The VU record, obviously.”

“It sounds like a Dr. Dre beat, but we’ve given it an IkeTurner bowl- cut and sent it galloping across the desert on a Stratocaster” – no journo could possibly top Arctic Monkeys’ debonair frontman AlexTurner’s own description of his band’s chart-topping fifth album, AM , which NME crowned Album Of The Decade in 2020 (repping the 2010s).Turner revealed his classic four-piece rock’n’roll band’s intention while creating AM was to sound “less like four lads playing in a room” and, as such, they expanded their musical palette by adding piano, organ, Hohner Guitaret and vintage drum machine. Opener and swashbuckling, sexy second single, Do IWanna Know? (D.I.W.K) – featuringTurner’s irresistible Northern accent-accentuating enunciation (eg. “summat” in lieu of ‘something’) – was the band’s first to enter the Billboard Hot 100 chart, effectively breaking Arctic Monkeys Stateside. And if the record sounds desert rock-tinged, that’ll be because it was partly recorded at JoshuaTree’s Rancho De La Luna studio.

Turner & Homme’s back-scratch pact Of Homme’s contribution to AM song Knee Socks , Turner has said, “His contribution to our

imagery (“Wraps her lips ‘round the Mexican Coke/ Makes you wish that you were the bottle…”) – swoon! Could someone please pass the smelling salts!? Stealing fromTheVelvet Underground Although AM is an initialism (Arctic Monkeys), this album title could also refer to the morning hours. But the action visualised throughout AM is very much centred around night-time business, no?

record is really exciting; it’s probably my favourite. The 30 seconds that he’s in there is just, I dunno, it’s like something that I’ve never heard before. Not to blow my own trumpet or anything, but you know what I’m saying.” Turner contributed guest backing vocals to If I Had a Tail from QOTSA’s ...Like Clockwork album, released earlier that same year, and explained to Lowe: “The Josh thing was very much a case of

Josh Homme and AlexTurner in 2015

one of us returning a back-scratch to the other.” During QOTSA’s slot at the Czech Republic’s Rock For People festival, Homme praised AM thusly: “A really cool, sexy, after-midnight record.” Ah-ha! AM could also be an initialism for ‘After Midnight’, perhaps? D.I.W.K ’s animated filmclip pretty much broke the internet D.I.W.K ’s animated music video joined the 1 billion YouTube views club back in June, 2020. Other clips to achieve this status include November Rain (Guns N’ Roses), Uptown Funk (Bruno Mars and Mark Ronson) and Sorry (Justin Bieber). AM is sprinkled with Ziggy Stardust “I was really listening to a lot of Bowie stuff when we were recording,” Arctic Monkeys guitarist Jamie Cook said during an interview promoting AM . “Just kind of revisiting his work, especially Ziggy Stardust … I really love it, but when you really examine it, it’s pretty flawless in my opinion. Maybe that did influence me a bit with how we poured ourselves into this record, perfecting each detail.”

During an interview with legendary radio DJ Zane Lowe, Turner ‘fessed up: “I actually stole it fromThe Velvet Underground, I’ll just confess

Arctic Monkeys in 2013 by Danny Clinch, L-R: Jamie Cook, AlexTurner, Nick O’Malley, Matt Helders.

50 MAY 2022

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