Arctic Monkeys was one of the first indie bands over-hyped and impossibly over-subscribed before they ever released an album, unfortunately followed by countless more in the last couple of years. To some surprise, they've had staying power, if their music hasn't necessarily kept pace. Their new release, Humbug has generally been panned, and though I've yet to listen to it cover to cover, I'm definitely underwhelmed with what I've heard. Just this morning I was reading Greg Kot's review, where he exclaimed that the band was at its most musical and technically proficient, but lacked the poppy ear worm songwriting that made its first two releases so popular (and at least above average quality wise). I've never really bought into the hype with this band, either on record or in concert, as I've always found the strained emotion a little unbelievable. There are about a half-dozen tracks across the 3 albums that I feel are very good, which is a lot more than a lot of bands put out, but for all the press and blog chatter spent on AM, that seems far subpar. This performance was no exception.
C
No comments:
Post a Comment