Posted By Ben W. on August 27, 2009

I should tell you that I’m notoriously bad at sorting out first impressions. I often hate an album on first listen, only to decide two weeks later that it’s the greatest piece of pop music ever released. I used to think it was a weakness. I tried to work on it. I tried to develop my ear, open my mind.

But, nope. Nothing worked. Nothing ever changed. I’m still the same way.

So rather than continue to fight this losing battle, I’m going to embrace my weakness for wavering taste and call it a strength. In fact, I’m going to chronicle it.

With the occasional new release, I’ll listen to the album once a day for a week and post my reactions – stream-of-conscious style – to each day’s listen. It won’t present a nice, easy-to-read consolidated summary of my opinions (i.e. a well-written album review). Sorry. What it will do, hopefully, is provide a more accurate representation of my opinions as they formed along the way during those crucial first few spins.

Of course, knowing me, my opinion will change drastically 56 more times in the subsequent two weeks after I stop writing about the album. But whatever. This is just an experiment. Hopefully it’s fun. Let me know what you think.

I’m going to start with the Arctic Monkeys’ new album Humbug. I’m thinking this is a perfect guinea pig for this review format, as all the early reviews I’ve read stress the need to listen to the record several times before fully grasping it. Or even grasping it all. Fun.

So here goes:

I feel like I’ve been frowning and wincing this entire first song. Not even because it’s that bad. It just seems like the appropriate facial features to form when listening to music this heavy and claustrophobic. There is no room to breathe in this song.

It’s amazing how good “Crying Lightning” sounds after that tuneless opener. I can see why it was the single now. It’s like being ugly in the mirror at home by yourself and then hanging out with ugly friends to look better. Did that make any sense?

I know this is supposed to be an album that gets better with repeated listens but damn, it’s bleak. Just dark and heavy. Cave music.

I’m not really feeling this on any level.

I’ve never particularly enjoyed the music part of this band’s music. They’ve never impressed me with their ability to write memorable riffs or instrumental passages. So they decided to make an album heavy on riffage and instrumentalism? Why was that again? This seems like a gross error in judgement. They’re playing to their weaknesses.

Alex’s lyrics were what I came for on the first two listens. Now he’s just spitting nonsense imagery. I hate this shit. Still annunciating brilliantly. Still delivers his words with the rhythmic flow worthy of a 1993 underground Brooklyn emcee. But these words? They mean nothing to me. Not yet anyway. Maybe I need to break them down on further listen.

This is just washing right over me. I’m on track six and I want to fall asleep.

Finally – “Cornerstone” – a song that feels like an actual song. Not coincidentally, one of the three tracks they did with James Ford after the sessions in the desert with Josh Homme. Wow, it even has lyrics that make sense. He wants to call his new girlfriend by the name of his ex. Not bad! Very “Vertigo.”

“Pretty Visitors” is nice, too. A warped take on their old energetic hustle bustle. This might be the first song on the record that doesn’t sound like the audio equivalent of being stoned. Oh wait. Strike that. I wrote that before hearing this ridiculous Spinal Tap heavy metal prog bridge. Damn. Disregard previous positive remarks regarding the visitors who are pretty.

All right. That’s it. That’s Day One with Humbug in the books. Let’s hope Day Two is better, yeah?

I respect that they refused to stand pat, making and remaking their debut record over and over to please the fans. But I’m not yet convinced this is progress. Check back tomorrow.

Related posts:

1. Humbug for a week — Day 2
2. Humbug for a week — Day 3

Categories: Reviews
Tags: Arctic Monkeys