The 3rd album by the Arctic Monkeys was released mid August 2009 and broke ground from their first two albums released years previous. The darker, mellow tones released off of this album really contrast from their party heavy, hyper-aggressive first two albums which fans were on ready and/ or no expecting. The darker tones can be credited to QOTSA singer and guitarist Josh Homme which brings out the meaningful and metaphorical terms in Alex’s songwriting. The darker feelings of this album make it a personal favourite as it is a more chilled out album but fails to disappoint when wanting to rock out and head-bang to the fuzz heavy bass lines from Nick O’Marley in “Crying Lightning” or to the powerful and fast drums from Matt Helders in “Pretty Visitors”.
My personal favourite part about this album is lyrics and meanings towards all the songs. Alex never fails to disappoint when it comes to songwriting, but this album goes a step beyond. The mix of metaphors and hidden meaning throughout the album are astounding. This is also to the help of Josh Homme (QOTSA) who is used to writing darker, grittier songs. The mix of the two songwriters was a perfect combination and had fans begging for more.
My least favourite part about this album is that some of the sounds of the songs can sound too samey. Songs such as “My Propeller”, “Dangerous Animals” and “Potion Approaching” all have a similar structure to the song, it starts with something to build up the listeners and then the verse plays our slow and mellow then the chorus builds up again for it to drop again. Then there’s a section where the guitars build up and solo until ending the song with a lot more energy than it had throughout.
My Favourite song on the album:
The ninth song on the album is titled “Pretty Visitors”. This song really sticks out to me because of it’s unique sound and how it is quite different to the rest of the album. The song starts out with an organ playing a melody which is heard throughout the whole song. The melody is played in a minor key and starts out the song in a slightly slow tempo, which will catch you off guard when the drums kick in. After the organ plays, all the instruments start to play which completely changes the sound. The drums keep the song and a steady yet speedy pace with a 4/4 beat and a tempo of 82 bpm at the start and then speeds up yet still keeping the same tempo yet it sounds like its changed. The song is played in the key of D which gives the tone and the mood of the song a darker feeling, yet not making it too low to the point it should sound like a metal song. The song is structured like a basic rock song with it being: Intro, Verse, Bridge, Chorus, Verse, Chorus, Organ Solo, Guitar Solo, Chorus, End.
The organ solo makes the song that bit more interesting as it makes the guitar solo have a better build up and makes the song have a better, louder sound. The song has many effects on all the guitars, The lead and rhythm guitar seem to sound like they have fuzz, delay, octaves and reverb effect pedals on them to give it the dirtier, desert sound. The bass is also heard playing with a fuzz/ distortion tone throughout which also makes the song louder and in your face. The drums have a very fast paced sound to them as after almost every bar in the chorus, Matt Helders plays a fill around the drum kit with 32nd notes. he also plays this on repeat in the bridge with just makes the song sound really powerful. The lyrics in the song are also very different. Alex Turner isn’t new to writing poetic sounding lyrics which are very relatable, but this song is full of metaphors and hidden meanings. A personal favourite is when he sings the like “All the pretty visitors came and waved their arms , And cast the shadow of a snake pit on the wall”. This line is about how when Alex performs live, when he looks out toward the crowd, instead of seeing fans, the movement and the shape of the audience hands are like a snake pit, which gives us the idea that Alex has some sort of fear when he is on stage.
Others opinions:
Alexis Petridis from the guardian stated:
“. There’s nothing wrong with Fire and the Thud or Dance Little Liar, but there’s none of the spark that marks out the band as a superior proposition to their peers: the lyrics are too oblique to connect and there’s not much of a tune behind the hazy atmospherics”.
I agree with this statement as i said earlier, a couple of the songs off of this album are quite similar and don’t have as much of a punch as some of the songs such as “Crying Lightning” and “Pretty Visitors”. The songs are very catchy and enjoyable to listen to, but they don’t have the same effect as some songs off of the first two albums, each song was unique and had that little bit of something else to make it different from any others, but this album doesn’t seem to follow in the same way and seems the have a couple songs that stand out and the others are more like fillers to make the album complete.
This album has helped me out with my composition because if it the bass effects and some of the dark tones inspired me to make a more mellow, heavier song instead of making something up beat and generic like a lot of songs that are released nowadays. My composition includes fuzz bass effects which i took inspiration from from Nick O’Malley as he used a fuzz/overdrive pedal throughout the album and there’s something about the dirty bass tone which gets to me and I just want to include it with everything I write.
Overall the album is one of the Arctic Monkeys greatest albums in my opinion as it has inspired me to make grittier music and has opened my eyes to a new style of rock which really interests me. Like if its the dirty guitar tones, or the mellow yet melodic singing, there’s just something about it. Either way, Humbug is a must listen to album and I would recommend it to anyone wanting to expand there taste in music.
NathanFrankCityPlym 