Arctic Monkeys - Suck It and See

3 outta 5

            Arctic Monkeys, what happened? Or should I say “Wat the bloody ‘ell ‘appened?”

            The Arctic Monkeys have been wowing the critics and music listeners alike for 9 years, ever since their debut album, Whatever People Say I am That’s What I’m Not. Fresh out of high school these brits surprised everyone and took the music world and turned it upside down. It turns out, that bands could sing about going to the club, starting fights and being little rascals and still make it poetic and unique! Their rough, catchy, stick-it-to-ya, balls out rock was actually good!  They continued on this trend for their masterpiece sophomore album My Favourite Worst Nightmare and slightly wavered from the path (but not too much) with the Josh Homme produced Humbug.

            But this new album Suck It and See? Uh… It’s kind of…bland. I hate saying this because they are such a promising band. I say “are” because I still have faith in them to make good music. Example: Alex Turner’s recent solo work on the soundtrack to the movie Submarine. They’ve still got it, I know they do, but I think Los Angeles, where they recorded Suck It, may have tainted them.

            The album doesn’t flow right, and you find yourself skipping over many of the tracks to get to the good stuff, which consists of  maybe 4 tracks. Most of it seems like filler material, while their catchy hooks, unique lyrics and strange chord combinations seem to be missing entirely. The single “Brick by Brick” is just bad. It’s an unoriginal, plain boring rock. Same with “Don’t Sit Down Cause I’ve Moved Your Chair” and “Love is a LaserQuest.”

            I was really disappointed with the full band version of “Piledriver Waltz.” I like the grand feeling of the drums that seem to echo through the choruses, but the version on the Submarine EP gives it a more acoustic personal feel, which it feels like it should need. There is too much clutter with the Suck It version.

            There are a few bright spots on the album that do make it seem like the boys haven’t lost their charm completely. The brightest spot is a shining beacon of a song called “Hellcat Spangled Shalalala.” It cranks up the delay and reverb on the guitars and shows off Matt Helders’ drumming, which seems to lack on the rest of the album. The key change at the end of this song is brilliant.

“She’s Thunderstorms” is also a great opening track. It opens with a lone guitar and Turner singing and the band kicks in with a rapid drum flourish that builds up to the chorus and then suddenly changes the mood. Classic Arctic Monkeys.

Another Nightmare-esque song is “Library Pictures.” Rapdifire lyrics that are reminiscent of “Do the Bad Thing” make up the verses and the wild guitar solos make a triumphant return and morph into a slow mellow bit and then right back into the chaos. You can really hear the influence that The Last Shadow Puppets had on Turner in this one with the mysterious, spy riffs.

Overall though, the songs aren’t terrible, maybe with the exception of “Brick By Brick,” there just, well… meh. It doesn’t feel like they’re giving it their all.