The best record of the Last decade is getting a sequel
JANUARY 19TH, 2016 — POST 015
I generally don’t like the ‘Recommended’ section of YouTube. It just reminds me how much time I’ve already spent watching freak videos, or Kitchen Nightmares clips, or how much time the service would hope for me to spend on some new no-name tech reviewer. But I can’t ignore it all together. Occasionally it’ll throw up something of genuine interest to me. A day or so ago I was recommended to watch the video clip of Bad Habits, the new single from a band who’s last release was eight years ago: The Last Shadow Puppets.
For whatever reason, I was completely in the dark on them reforming and was actually only last week having a conversation about how they probably won’t ever. I was resigned to enjoying the one record they had released and feeling satisfied that I could carry that with me throughout the rest of my life. So you can imagine it was pretty big deal to see we’ve got a new record from them on the way.
I instantly messaged my brother. This was the day we were convinced would never come.
The Age of the Understatement — the first The Last Shadow Puppet release — came at a time in my life when cultural products have a pretty good shot of sticking, at the age of 16. I had already been an Arctic Monkeys fan and anything frontman Alex Turner did was going to get my attention. Turner and his long-time friend Miles Kane — at the time of The Rascals and previously of The Little Flames — teamed up to create a record with richness well beyond what you would think two guys in their early 20s could do.
The presentation channelled 60s mod. Like if two Beatles split off and joined The Jam. I still revist the single shot video clip of Standing Next To Me as an example of what can be achieved, both musically and filmically, in just two minutes.
The music was more ornately detailed than this presentation would suggest, however. Expansive orchestral horn and string arrangement lent this record both a regal bombast and a delicate fragility that the instrumentation of either Turner’s or Kane’s regular fares couldn’t allow. Comparisons were made at the time, from press and the group alike, to Scott Walker who, on paper, had set the sonic precedent for The Age of the Understatment in the late 60s. However, whether Turner and Kane weren’t as technically proficient as Walker or simply had more pop sensibilities, The Last Shadow Puppets sound was distinct: instantly approachable but would grow and conjure something new in the listener with each play. I will always point to the reverb work on The Chamber as exemplary of their inarguably cinematic sound.
Understanding the chronology of Arctic Monkeys records is also important to get why The Age of the Understatement got to be this good. The first two LPs were in 2006 and 2007. 2007 was a huge year or touring which included a Glastonbury headline and concluded with what might be the best live performance recorded and sold as a DVD: At The Apollo (there’s a whole piece to be written on how superb Richard Ayoade’s direction was here but that’s for another time). The collateral design on Favourite Worst Nightmare, from the logo redesign to the three matching EPs put out for the three singles, was unified in a way that indie bands simply didn’t do. There was an assuredness to make the record they wanted to and truly forge themselves as a group. Arguably, it was their approach to this tricky period in the story of any band, the second album, that they’re still seeing returns on in their continued success. From all of their contemporaries — Franz Ferdinand, The Libertines, The View, The Wombats — Arctic Monkeys are the only ones who have consistently delievered great records and show no sign of letting up.
It was after this group-defining year that Turner and Kane headed into the studio and formed The Last Shadow Puppets. It was the realisation of the cosmic possibilities of this sound coupled with Yorkshire humility and a lyrical respect for mundanity that minted this record as a timeless classic.
Both Turner and Kane have diverged from the nexus that this record was. Turner has found pomade in sunny Los Angeles whilst Kane’s solo efforts and live stage presence cuts an amalgam of Rod Stewart, Keith Richards, and Paul Weller. The new single Bad Habits instantly feels different from anything on The Age of the Understatement and seems to embrace a part of the spectrum The Last Shadow Puppets only dipped into in B-sides, notably on Hang The Cyst. Gone are the strings and horns, the textural flourishes, the ernestness. I’m not suggesting this bodes poorly for the LP as a whole.
But let’s just say this: I’m happy I was resigned to only ever having The Age of the Understatement.
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