Humbug for a week — Day 2
Posted By Ben W. on August 29, 2009
This is part two of a series of stream-of-conscience comments on the new Arctic Monkeys’ album Humbug. I’m listening to it once a day and chronicling my opinions of each listen, hoping to illustrate how my opinions of the record develop (or fail to develop). Read part one here.
Back for day two and can’t say I’m too terribly excited about this, given how dull the first listen was. But it’s an album the critics say gets better with time, so maybe 24 hours was enough to improve my ears.
Opener “My Propeller” is still as dull as dish water. “Crying Lightning” is good. Officially. Still not sold on it as an exciting single, but it really stands out on this album. I’m actually very sad to hear it end, as I know it will be the last hummable moment for the next half hour.
Tracks 3 through 6 are absolutely putrid. Just lifeless masses of amateurish riffs and ugly sounds. I’d really want my money back at this point, if I hadn’t gotten this album for free. Somehow I still feel ripped off.
As with the first listen, track 7, “Cornerstone” is a breath of fresh air. I still don’t know if it’s even that great of a song. But after the last 15 minutes of garbage, anything with an acoustic guitar, a verse and a chorus, a melody and lyrics that make sense seems worthy of inclusion on freaking Pet Sounds. I like this.
Tracks 8 and 9 are fairly strong too, at least in comparison to the rest of the record. Track 10, “The Jeweller’s Hands,” is a painful conclusion.
I don’t know guys. Two listens in and my predominant opinion is that this album is just very boring. That’s about all I can say. It’s just dull. I don’t enjoy listening to it. And I fear my little review experiment of writing about it five times in a week is failing miserably (sorry!). It’s a boring album to write about, and surely, a boring album to read about.
Ummm. Check back for Day 3?
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