The tenth anniversary of the revolutionary rock album by the Arctic Monkeys, AM, is coming up on September 9, so let’s take a look at why it is so well-known.
The album is the best-selling of the Arctic Monkeys’ 7 album discography, selling over 3 million physical copies. The album is packed to the gills with thundering drums, gritty vocals, and fat guitar riffs. The opening song, “Do I Wanna Know?” is the perfect example of this; the soft drumline with the powerful riff can get any crowd to lose their minds. The second song on the album, “R U Mine?” is another wonderful example of thundering drums that drive the song. Contrary to the typical use of the bass guitar in music, AM often has the bass overdriven to get a crunchy, lead guitar sound. You can hear this very clearly in “R U Mine?” during a middle section where they have a solo that sounds like a tuned-down guitar, but is in reality the bass line way overdriven. This sound is part of what makes the album so iconic and their sound so recognizable.
Despite being released in 2013, long after the glory days of the garage rock revival, the album achieved massive success while including classic themes from the older music, things you may have heard from The White Stripes. The 4th track, “Arabella” perfectly exemplifies this. You get a blistering guitar solo pumped through a voice box to give it that techy, raw feeling often associated with The Strokes.
In addition to drawing on classic styles from the earlier days of the rock revival, they also include new sounds that audiences would not have associated with rock. In one of the slower tracks on the album, “Mad Sounds”, there is use of overlapping, almost choir-like vocals in the background over the main vocal track. This use of vocals harkens back to the early days of rock and roll, back to the time of rockers like Chuck Berry. Despite being an older technique, the sounds of falsetto “Ooh-la-la”s do not sound out of place at all in a contemporary rock album.
The final reason that AM is such a classic album is the lyricism of Alex Turner, the lead singer/songwriter. The lyrics simultaneously are familiar enough to identify with but are vague enough that you can assign your own meaning to them. In “Arabella”, Alex sings “The horizon tries but it’s just not as kind on the eyes as Arabella”. This sort of songwriting can be thought about in the context of your own significant other, meaning the album was widely accessible to anyone.
Overall, I rank the album a 9/10 for it impact in modern culture and just for being a banger.
