I've had the new Arctic Monkeys album on advanced order from Amazon from about 45 seconds after I heard that there was to be a new album. Maybe if I improve my typing speed, I'll get it faster next time ...
It eventually came in the post, and I put it on while I did some painfully detailed documentation work for my most recent client. Anyone who knows me from work knows that documentation and Stan just don't get on. I blame what I call sarcastically my "legendary attention to detail".
Next thing I knew it was over, and not a single track had registered with me.
The next day I drove to Bradford and played the album again in the car. Same deal - not a track struck a chord or was in any way memorable.
It's perfectly possible that I'm malfunctioning. But I doubt it. I still believe that "Whatever People Say..." is the best album of the century so far, and that "A Certain Romance" is the best track of the century so far. So I haven't lost my taste for the Arctic Monkey's music.
Maybe I was expecting too much - but maybe they've lost it. Maybe it's similar to the situation with "The Streets", where he became embarassingly rubbish when he made the big time. Great when singing about being poor and not getting girls - woeful when he started singing about being a pop star.
The Arctic Monkeys' energy came from the pursuit of Fags, Shags 'n' Kebabs in working-class Sheffield. I hope they find another muse from somewhere, because even though I believe these are among the most talented people in the world right now, I am not going to be pre-ordering the third album when that time comes.
btw. I hear that they are likely to have just about every track from the album in teh top twenty this week, thanks to downloads being counted. I certainly applaud the demise of the idea of choosing the "single from the album". Some pencil-necked record exec would traditionally choose this and there are so many famous cases of them getting it badly wrong.
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