Suck It And See

So ‘Suck it and See’ is the title to the fourth Arctic Monkeys album and it’s sure to divide opinion. Whilst I’m a fan of the title I can’t help feeling it’s a bit too familiar (it’s what they told fans to do when they listened to ‘Humbug’ and they have used the phrase fairly often over the years). More exciting is the track listing, twelve brand new songs to get excited about with some truly wonderful names. Have a look below (and check out Jamie’s giant beard in the new band photo!)

01. She’s Thunderstorms
02. Black Treacle
03. Brick by Brick
04. The Hellcat Spangled Shalalala
05. Don’t Sit Down ‘Cause I’ve Moved Your Chair
06. Library Pictures
07. All My Own Stunts
08. Reckless Serenade
09. Piledriver Waltz
10. Love is a Laserquest
11. Suck It and See
12. That’s Where You’re Wrong

Arctic Monkeys ‘Brick by Brick’

It’s not every day a brand new Arctic Monkeys song turns up on the web out of the blue. ‘Brick by Brick’ is the bluesiest thing the Monkeys have ever released and it bears more than a passing resemblance to ‘Girl You Have No Faith In Medicine’ by The White Stripes. It’s also, lyrically, the most simple and direct song Turner has ever penned and I can’t recall another Arctic Monkeys tune that features such complex harmonies. So there is a lot that’s different about ‘Brick by Brick’ which suggests the Monkeys next album will be very interesting indeed. I’d be lying if I said I was entirely satisfied by their trip into an increasingly riff driven style  of rock but I haven’t been let down by the band yet and fingers crossed I wont be with album number four.

British Sea Power Return!

In October British Sea Power return with a pretty epic new ep that they are calling ‘Zeus’. Apparently a song called ‘Cleaning Out The Rooms’ will be on a proper album that is coming out in January. But this will more than do for now (check out the title track over on the band’s website.)

1) Zeus
2) Cleaning Out The Rooms
3) Can We Do It?
4) Bear
5) Pardon My Friends
6) Mongk
7) Kw-h
+ unlisted bonus track ‘Retreat’

Interpol ‘Interpol’ – Review

2004

I hear ‘Antics’ by Interpol for the first time. ‘This is cool,’ I think. ‘Very cool. Look at how black the cover is. The music is so smooth and dramatic. This is very cool,’ I think.

2005

I hear ‘Antics’ again. I also hear ‘Turn On The Bright Lights’ for the first time. ‘This isn’t as good as I remembered,’ I think to myself. ‘This is pretty boring actually. This is very boring. And so dark. I’m going to listen to Franz Ferdinand, they are cool.’

2007

I hear ‘Our Love to Admire. I notice that the cover is bright and brutal and not at all monotone. The same is true of the music. ‘This is more like it,’ I think. ‘This sounds bigger and better. This is decent. They’ve won me back.’

I see Interpol live. I’m bored. I stand, staring at my feet, staring at a grey sky, staring at a motionless guitarist. It’s all the same. I walk away, bored, they watch me leave, even more bored than I am. I listen to ‘Our Love To Admire’ again and retract my previous statements about it being their best album yet. It’s not. It’s actually pretty useless.

2009

I hear ‘Obstacle 1’ whilst my MP3 player is on shuffle. I really get into it. I listen to ‘Evi’l and ‘Public Pervert’ and ‘C’mere’ and NYC. Time apart has been good for us. We are friends again.

July 2010

I hear ‘Lights’, my first glimpse at Interpol’s fourth album. ‘Is that it?’ I ask myself. Later on I hear ‘Barricade’, first single proper. ‘This is excellent. very energetic’. I see them perform it on some tv show. ‘They look old,’ I think. ‘How old are they now?’ Later on I hear that their bass player has left. He was the one that looked like a Nazi. They are in their mid-thirtees.

September 2010

I listen to ‘Interpol’ on spotify. It’s self titled and I’m not entirely sure why. Maybe it’s their last album. That wouldn’t be a bad thing, have you seen how old they look? The first song on the record is called ‘Success’. An hour later I laugh at the irony of this – ‘Interpol’ is not a success. Maybe it is in their eyes. It isn’t in mine.

Other song titles include ‘Lights’, ‘Memory Serves, ‘Safe Without.’ It’s all very vague and grandiose. I don’t notice any huge difference between this album and the last three, except two rather big differences. The first difference is that there are lots of strings. Noticable, sweeping strings. Strings that have seduced many reviewers into referring to this album as ‘cinematic.’ Actually it’s less suited for the cinema and more suited for the moody montage in House or something. ‘Blimey,’ I think halfway through Lights, ‘these songs go on forever. How much longer has this album got?’ It’s got another 28 minutes.

The second major difference between this and the other albums is the lack of ‘tunes’. You see Interpol have always loved atmosphere and mood but they’ve always had tunes as well. Not anymore they don’t. Well, they have ‘Barricade’ but that’s it. Interpol with all mood and no tunes makes Thomas a depressed man. At times during my listen I wonder if someone slipped me a sleeping pill. The album ends, at last, with a song called ‘The Undoing.’ It’s five minutes of nothing. ‘What a shame,’ I think.

Yesterday

I hear ‘Barricade’ on Radio 1. That is a tune. Maybe the album isn’t so bad after all. It probably is though. But maybe…

5/10