#371 - Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not (2006)

MUSIC HISTORY WRITTEN BY HEAD WRITER DJ MORTY COYLE:

Released on January 23rd of 2006 on Domino Records and produced by Jim Abbiss this is the debut studio album by the British, Indie, Alternative, Post-Punk and Garage-Rock Revival, Rock group.

Alex Turner and Matt Helders were childhood friends, neighbors, and schoolmates in the South Yorkshire city of Sheffield in Northern England. They met Andy Nicholson in secondary school and the three, like many of their contemporaries who were mostly enamored by rappers, would hang out and try to make Hip-Hop beats.

That changed significantly after they heard The Strokes in 2001 and they soon formed an instrumental Rock band with Alex on guitar, Matt on drums, Andy on bass, and another neighbor, Jamie Cook on second guitar.

After no one stepped up to sing they elected Alex as lead vocalist because of his verbal dexterity.

The next year Arctic Monkeys were born and a year later they were playing gigs.

After recording and giving away demo CDs at shows that were copied and file-shared they started generating a buzz but it was a MySpace fan page that really caught attention and without much other promotion they became one of the earliest successes in the internet era.

Eventually the radio and press caught on to their regional popularity and they put out their own short-run, 2-song EP and got signed to the small independent label Domino Records.

This was recorded at one song a day in the order they would and did appear on the album.

Both of their first two pre-album singles went straight to #1.

And to say that the record was a success is a ridiculous understatement.

Essentially a first-person, narrative, concept album about the lives of young, Northern English, working class, nightclubbers, the spunky and often manic energy of the band playing Turner’s songs and his decidedly Sheffield-dialectal delivery of rapid-fire, Hip-Hop-inspired, witty and wry, lyrics that ranged from stream-of-consciousness surrealism to the social realism of kitchen sink drama was highly effective because it became and for now remains the fastest-selling debut album in British history.

By the way even in America it became the second-fastest selling independent debut album in history.

Alex however was uncomfortable with the rapid attention and being labelled the spokesperson of his generation so instead of the band doing a lot of record promotion they opted to quickly follow it up a few months later with a 5-song EP called “Who the Fuck Are Arctic Monkeys?”

Right after it was released Andy Nicholson left due to that overwhelming fame and success to be replaced by Nick O'Malley on bass.

The critics and fans proved to be correct about Alex. Amongst their ton of recognition they won Best New Band and Best British Band at the NME and the Brit Awards. This also won Best Album at both as well as that year’s Mercury Prize and Ivor Novello Award. Even Time Magazine called it the Album of the Year.

By the way, when this was made Alex was 19 and the oldest guy in the band was 20.

Along with constant touring and various band side-projects and excursions they’ve since put out five more studio albums, becoming the first independent label band to have their first six albums go straight to #1 in the U.K.