LAST year, we celebrated the anniversary of ‘I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor’; a track penned in a Sheffield rehearsal room sometime in 2004, it was a number one hit, a lyrical standout and a track that, even though the band fall out with it from time to time, will forever remain in their live set forever.
Today, we find ourselves looking back on ten years of their debut album Whatever People Say I am, That’s What I’m Not, released on this day in 2006.
With an iconic storytelling narrative, the band exploded into a flooding market of indie rock‘n’roll, speaking to the youth of 2006 in a way that others could only try to. And what’s left ten years on is a record that stands the test of time. The pop-punk riff and toe-tapping heartbeat of tracks like ‘I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor’ making sure of that.
The record cracks the nut of how to write genius songs that speak to your peers. It just so happened Turner and co’s peers grew from their hometown of Sheffield, to the UK, to the world. To date the band has released five throbbing studio albums and embarked on just a few world tours.
With many of the tracks still cemented in the band’s live sets, Arctic Monkeys say the simplicity of their debut songs is where the love lies, the tracks are more fun than ever to play and in turn, they could never imagine not playing them.
A lyrical genius of our time creating poetically beautiful songs that speak in a Morse Code that we can all understand, Arctic Monkeys flare remains rare and exciting. There’s only a handful of records in a lifetime that become the pinnacle of a period of time or an anthem for a generation but ten years ago today can be remembered for doing just that.
