Arctic Monkeys released sophomore album, Favourite Worst Nightmare

Favourite Worst Nightmare Arctic Monkeys

Released: April 23, 2007 Peak: 7 US, 13 UK, 4 CN, 2 AU Sales (in millions): 0.36 US, 1.0 UK, 1.61 world (includes US and UK) Genre: garage rock revival

Tracks: (Click for codes to singles charts.) Brianstorm (4/16/07, 2 UK) Teddy Picker (12/07, 20 UK) D Is for Dangerous Balaclava Fluorescent Adolescent (7/07, 5 UK) Only One Who Knows Do Me a Favour This House Is a Circus If You Were There, Beware The Bad Thing Old Yellow Bricks 505 Total Running Time: 37:18 The Players: Alex Turner (vocals, guitar) Jamie Cook (guitar, vocals) Nick O’Malley (bass, vocals) Matt Helders (drums, vocals)

Rating: 4.022 out of 5.00 (average of 24 ratings) Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Album: “Breathless praise is a time-honored tradition in British pop music, but even so, the whole brouhaha surrounding the 2006 debut of the Arctic Monkeys bordered on the absurd. It wasn’t enough for the Arctic Monkeys to be the best new band of 2006; they had to be the saviors of rock & roll. Lead singer/songwriter Alex Turner had to be the best songwriter since Noel Gallagher or perhaps even Paul Weller, and their debut, Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not, at first was hailed as one of the most important albums of the decade, and then, just months after its release, NME called it one of the Top Five British albums ever.” AMG Instead of basking in the abundance of praise, the Monkeys went right back to work. Favourite Worst Nightmare came out just a little over a year after their debut and the result is “the vibrant, thrilling sound of a band coming into its own.” AMG The album “hardly abandons the pleasures of their debut but instead frantically expands upon them.” AMG “This isn’t a quartet that bashes out simply three-chord rock & roll.” AMG “They’ll play art punk riffs without pretension.” AMG “Born in the ‘80s and raised on the Strokes and the Libertines, they treat all rock as a level playing field, loving its traditions but not seeing musical barriers between generations.” AMG They absorb their influences and “spit it all out in a giddy, cacophonous blend of post-punk and classic rock that sounds fresh.” AMG They “haven’t stumbled on their second album” like those bands did by overthinking it. AMG In fact, Nightmare has been described as a “faster, meaner” WK “more ambitious, heavier” WK album. They “sound like they’ll try anything, which makes this a rougher album in some ways than their debut, which indeed was more cohesive. All the songs on Whatever shared a similar viewpoint, whereas the excitement here is that there’s a multitude of viewpoints.” AMG “It reveals the depth and ambition of the band.” AMG “The Monkeys may start with an infectious riff, but then they’ll violently burst into jagged yet tightly controlled blasts of post-punk squalls or they’ll dress a verse with circular harmonies as they do at the end of Fluorescent Adolescent.” AMG “Their signature is precision, evident in their concise songs, deftly executed instrumental interplay.” AMG There’s also “Turner’s wry wordplay, which is clever but never condescending.” AMG Even the title of the album’s lead single is a play on words. Often mistakenly assumed to be titled “Brainstorm,” the song is actually called Brianstorm, a reference to the song’s protagonist named Brian. The song hit #2 on the UK charts, paving the way for the album to have another big debut like its predecessor. It debuted at #1 on the UK album chart, eventually selling a million copies.

Resources and Related Links: DMDB Encyclopedia entry for Arctic Monkeys AMG All Music Guide review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine WK Wikipedia First posted 6/8/2011; updated 3/13/2022.