When the Arctic Monkeys burst onto the scene a few years back in a blaze of CDRs and Myspace hype, there were those of us who were prepared to write them off before hearing a note of their music. But alas, rather than being shite like I'd hoped, they were brilliant, reminding me of John Cooper Clarke and The Fall. Two brilliant albums and a Dizzee Rascal collaboration later and its time for the Arctics lead singer, Alex Turner, to spread his wings into those most dangerous of areas, the side project zone.
So we get The Last Shadow Puppets, where Alex is joined by his good buddy Miles Kane, from The Rascals. Together, they've recorded an album called The Age Of The Understatement, released by Domino Records, also home to the Arctic Monkeys and Franz Ferdinand amongst others.
By rights, this album should suck great big donkey balls, the song writers from 2 hip young bands thinking the world needs to hear songs that weren't good enough for their main bands, or maybe trying on some new musical stylings and running with it, no matter how poorly they fit them. But no, as an album, it actually stands up. The songs remind me of those late 60s spy movie theme songs, as well as the early solo work of Scott Walker. Having heard sweet naff all of from the Rascals, I'm not sure what influences Kane is bringing to the party, but in a lot of these songs you can hear that slightly surf guitar twang that sometimes comes through in Turners playing on the Arctics.
First up on the album, you get the two singles (The Age of The Understatement, and Standing Next To Me), which set the tone nicely for the album, reminiscent of the past without making the fatal error of falling into pastiche. If I was to make one complaint, its that, while their voices work together really well, they at time blend a little too well and it can be a bit hard to distinguish who is singing what.
Side one continues with the slightly less frantic The Chamber, a nice change of pace from the earlier songs which almost threaten to overtake themselves at points, before Only The Truth rounds out side one, with a brilliant stop start arrangement. Listening to the album on vinyl (which I did), its apparent that Turner and Kane were thinking into terms of having two sides to fill, rather than a CD. This is a good thing (though not having listened to the album on CD, I'm not sure if sequencing works on that format as well), given that bands these days seem to think less in terms of "An Album" as opposed to "A collection of songs." While this can be a subtle art, a well sequenced album is a joy to listen to and its great to see bands not thinking "Oh well, who cares what order we put these songs into, they're just gonna put it on their I-Pods anyways."
My Mistakes Were Made For You opens up the 2nd side, a lovely song that reminds me of Shirley Bassey, who the Arctic covered at Glasto in 2007 (She rules in case you were wondering), before Black Plant changes things up again, some what jarringly with its angular arrangement and stabby synth action, quite possibly my favourite song on the album, if I had to pick a favourite (and I don't really wanna, so there).
The album finishes on a somewhat understated note with Time Has Come Again, all acoustic guitars and soothing vocals.
A top effort from these lads. Apparently, the are about tour this album throughout the UK with an orchestra, which I would love to see, but I doubt they'll bring it to little ol' NZ (tho one can only hope)
www.theageoftheunderstatement.com
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