http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0JVrxwj7GY Its all too easy to point out that in the years since their debut album, the Arctics have morphed into the kind of band that they ridiculed on Fake Tales of San Francisco. Theyve flirted with leather jacket and shades looks and spewed tales that sound at home in grimy New York City despite being conceived by minds born in a town closer to Rotherham. But where the band failed to see this irony in their Humbug phase, they lapped it up on last years AM. The record is all smiles and sultry swagger; a horny, flamboyant beast trapped inside a 12 slab of wax. Here, nothing is off limits in a sexy Monkeys menu that serves up a starter of hyperbolic handclaps before meandering through a falsetto-infused main course, all finished off with lashings of ill-begotten desire. AM may find Turner reducing his scope to issues of the heart (alongside the issues of a number of other choice organs) but this results in an intensity of emotion and breadth of detail unrivalled on any previous release. Gone is the sweetly poetic tinge of Suck it and See, replaced by an unquenchable thirst for fornication; the primal bed-surfing, head-spinning R U Mine?, voyeuristic dreamscape of Arabella and virile nastiness of Knee Socks. Such is Turners preoccupation with these erotic topics that he departs entirely from social commentary, unless of course, its a comment that can be made through the steamy lens of a prowling, unsatisfied masculinity. Fittingly, the band turns in its heaviest sound to date to match Turners perpetual potency but also showcases its diversity in its sound-tracking of more sensitive pieces such as Fireside and Mad Sounds. No. 1 Party Anthem, AMs slow-burning centrepiece feels like the seedier, hungrier older brother of shy and speculative early tracks like Dancing Shoes in its tone and meticulousness and is the perfect demonstration of Turners development as a song-writer, as well as mirroring his growth from awkward teen to id-feeding phantom. A timeless record that takes explicit influence from a heavier rock lineage ranging from Black Sabbath to the Black Keys, AM is the bands best offering since their raucous debut. Best Tracks: R U Mine?, No.1 Party Anthem, Arabella
A 22 year old English Literature graduate from Birmingham. I am passionate about music, literature and football, in particular, my beloved Aston Villa. Lover of words and consumer of art, music is the very air that I breathe.