Overall Rating — 10/10
‘Favourite Worst Nightmare’ is the second album released by the Arctic Monkeys, and they would have been under a lot of pressure to deliver an album as good as their debut. In my opinion, they blew us away again, because this album is filled with so many great songs. I’d say their first two albums are the only two albums of theirs that have had a similar sound, as I feel like after this, they had more than made a name for themselves and had more freedom to experiment. Saying that, there are tracks such as, ‘505’ and ‘Only Ones Who Know’, which are unlike the rest of the tracks on the album. It was released almost 17 years ago, in April 2007.
1. Brianstorm
Wow! What a track to open this album. Honestly, every time I listen to this song it just blows me away. It’s filled with so much energy, crazy guitar riffs and a fast-paced drum rhythm. It’s one of the greatest introductions to a song that I have ever heard. You can understand the reason they put storm in the title, as there is so much carnage. As we get nearer to the opening verse, the rhythm guitar plays a quick chord progression and then we hear the opening line, “Brian, top marks for not trying”. Alex Turner has stated that he can’t remember who Brian is or whether it was just in his imagination. It appears to be about a man who goes about life freely, full of charm and will get any girl that he wants to get. “We’re grateful and so strangely comforted” implies that they secretly like being in his presence and in a way, they look up to him. Verse two details that some people may love or hate Brian, but usually the girls will love him and it’s probably men who are jealous who will hate on him. “And she’s not aware yet but she’s yours” indicates that the writer is acknowledging that Brian is easily going to get the girl. I love how the drum groove changes as it progresses into the bridge and then it goes into an instrumental. My favourite line from this track is, “I doubt it’s your style not to get what you set out to acquire, the eyes are on fire, you are the unforecasted storm”.
Overall Rating — 10/10
2. Teddy Picker
Track number two does not disappoint! A catchy riff grabs my attention after a drum fill in the introduction. This riff continues throughout most of the song. It’s such an infectious guitar part and it’s always stuck in my head whenever I’ve listened to the track. Lyrically, it’s a track which explores people wanting fame and the perks that come with it, rather than working your way up for it. ‘Teddy Picker’ as a song title represents trying to grab the teddy from a machine, which we all know is a difficult thing to do and is using this as a metaphor for people trying to become famous. Turner is saying that the industry is a scary one, suggesting he knows what fame does to people and that they could get heartbroken when they get let down. He is mainly referencing the TV industry. “They’ve sped up to the point where they provoke, the punchline before they have told the joke” is the opening line in the track and it’s a brilliant one. It means wanting to hear the punchline before building up the joke. My favourite line from this track is, “Don’t be surprised when you get bent over, they told you, but you were gagging for it”.
Overall Rating — 10/10
3. D is for Dangerous
I love the opening to this track, as there is an instrumental which is intensifying, and Matt Helders sings the opening lines. Turner then takes over and I think this is something that works well. Helders has some great vocals and it’s good that he has the chance to show this off. The opening verse and chorus suggest a sexual encounter between the two characters in this song. The male doesn’t know how to act around this girl, and she makes him lose his train of thought, which is suggested in the opening lines, “He knew what he wanted to say but he didn’t know how to word it”. In the bridge, it’s just the drums, bass and vocals and we’re just waiting for the song to kick off again. The two lines, “He’s nearing the brink, but he thinks first, a parallel universe could be the perfect scene” are repeated many times in this section. Throughout the verses, the bass is the leading instrument, then when we reach the choruses, it’s great to hear the guitars playing more of a role. My favourite line from this song is, “D is for delightful and try and keep your trousers on”.
Overall Rating — 10/10
4. Balaclava
‘Balaclava’ is the second song in a row which opens with a leading bass part and this riff is just brilliant. It sounds suspenseful, and the sense that trouble is on the cards, which references the lyrics. A balaclava is used to hide a face, usually worn by thugs/ criminals. Turner is saying that the fact this character has his face hidden gives them so much more confidence to go about their risky business. It could be interpreted as a criminal act such as robbery, or a metaphorical robbery of stealing somebody’s partner. The writer suggests that even though it’s fun, is it worth the guilt they’re going to feel later down the line. A fitting line to back this up is, “Can only hope that the ending is as pleasurable as the start”. What suggests to me that it’s an affair is the line, “Now the shaggers perform, and the daggers are drawn”. I love the pause in the instrumental on the line, “Who’s the crooks in this crime?”, which then progresses into an instrumental break. My favourite line from this song is, “You knew that it would be trouble right before the very first kiss”.
Overall Rating — 10/10
5. Fluorescent Adolescent
This is the instantly recognisable Arctic Monkeys tune which I’m certain nearly everybody has heard. It also gained popularity when it featured multiple times on the TV series, ‘The Inbetweeners’. Like many other Monkeys tracks, it’s got a catchy riff. This time in the opening, it plays a hooking call and response with the drums. Within the lyrics, it infers a woman who is past her prime days and has grown up. She no longer goes on nights out and life seems to have quietened down. “Discarded all the naughty nights for niceness, landed in a very common crisis”, is a line that suggests this. We get the sense that she is reflecting on these times because of the line, “Oh that boys a slag, the best you ever had, the best you ever had is just a memory”. In verse two, it suggests that her life has became very stale, and that she doesn’t enjoy the things she use to. Such as going out and finding herself in sexual relationships. In the bridge, the songs beat and tempo change, it slows down and becomes calmer. When they played this track at Christmas time many years ago, Matt Helders would get up and sing ‘Last Christmas’ by Wham! and honestly, it’s one of the best videos ever. The song starts to gradually build itself back up again before it goes into the outro, where it repeats many of the lines from the track. My favourite line from this song is, “Flicking through a little book of sex tips, remember when all the boys were electric?”.
Overall Rating — 10/10
6. Only Ones Who Know
Like I said in my opening statement, this is one of the tracks on this album that is unlike the majority. It’s softer and slower, it doesn’t have catchy riffs but nonetheless, it’s a brilliant track. Gavin and Stacey fans may recognise this song from the episode where Smithy finds out he is a father and runs off to the driving range. In the opening verse, to me it describes a new love blossoming and entering the honeymoon stage. I think the character is more concerned about being in a relationship, rather than being in the relationship with the right person. We then progress to the chorus, where it seems this new relationship hasn’t lasted long, and the writer is suggesting even if they could have given this girl everything she wanted, she’d still have been better off alone or without him. This is suggested in the line, “Even if somehow we could have, shown you, the place you wanted, well I’m sure you could have made it that bit better on your own”. The final verse suggests this girl struggles to keep friendships and relationships and always makes promises she can’t keep. However, I also get the sense that she has moved onto a new relationship, and this is where her priorities lie. A line which suggests this, and is also my favourite in this song is, “I hope your holding hands by New Year’s Eve”.
Overall Rating — 9/10
7. Do Me A Favour
Track number seven is quite the eventful and emotional breakup song. I think lyrically, it’s filled with so many great lines. For me, this is what makes this song so great. In terms of instrumentally, the drums are playing a suspenseful groove, and the bass guitar also plays an important part in the song. It’s not until the final chorus when the track feels heavier. Back to the first verse, it instantly starts with the relationship ending, shown in the line, “Well the mourning was complete, there was tears on the steering wheel, dripping on the seat”. This emphasises how much crying has gone on for the tears to be dripping down. It’s one of my favourite lines in this song. In the chorus, it’s evident the writer wants to break up with their partner, but would rather she do something, so he had reason to leave her, such as telling him to go away or break his nose. The writer had been thinking of alternative futures, and a great line to show this is, “Curiosity becomes a heavy load, too heavy to hold, it’ll force you to be cold”. It’s after this line when the song kicks off and builds tension for the final chorus. The final line, “And to tear apart the tinds that bind, perhaps f**k off might be too kind”, implies the writer knows he’s messed this girl around and is expecting worse than to be told to f**k off. My favourite line from this track is, “She walked away, well her shoes were untied, and the eyes were all red, you could see that we’d cried”.
Overall Rating — 10/10
8. This House Is a Circus
It opens with a mysterious sound, as the snare drum is tapping away, which coincides with up and down strokes of guitar chords. A bass guitar is then added, which plays riffs, and you can feel the tension that is building. In the first verse, Turner is singing the lyrics quickly, almost rapping them. He is gently singing them in comparison to what is about to come. Alex Turner is telling us that being in the music industry is quite heavy, the parties, drugs and alcohol that comes with it is mad. They’re tricking themselves into thinking they had a great night, but the line, “The memories are pretend”, suggests they didn’t. At the end of the first verse, it sets itself up for it to flow perfectly into verse two, where Alex becomes more passionate in the way he is singing, almost shouting the lyrics. It’s in this verse where it suggests once people are under the the influence of alcohol and drugs, they turn into people that their sober minds wouldn’t recognise. Ultimately, the track is about being someone you’re not at these parties and not having a real purpose in life and only living off the temporary buzz from these nights. My favourite line from this song is, “Like a search for murder clues in dead men’s eyes”.
Overall Rating — 9/10
9. If You Were There, Beware
This song possesses quite the extended suspenseful introduction, which sets the tone for the rest of the track. It has quite a heavy sound and is a great example of their experimentation. In the first verse, Turner is writing about people who have committed to cruel ways and want to bring innocent people down as well. Both verses begin with the line, “If you were there beware, the serpent soul pinchers”, where the writer is cautioning people involved as there are snakes about who will steal your soul. “As they’re trying to rob the words from her gob and take the sword to the innocents”, suggests journalists/ paparazzi trying to get any piece of information they can and will twist any little thing that they can. I think the instrumental after the bridge is brilliant, I love the way it breaks down, sounding like the song is ending. The vocals are reminiscent of the Strokes in the section that follows. An outro plays which is like the introduction. My favourite line from this song is, “And why leave her on her own? If I’d have known, then I wouldn’t have said it”.
Overall Rating — 8/10
10. The Bad Thing
I adore this track! It’s an underrated banger from the band and it doesn’t get the attention it deserves. Starting with the intro, it has a great bassline, great flow and guitar riffs that fit this instrumental perfectly. Instantaneously, I understand the track to be about a married woman trying it on with the writer and Turner wants her to take off her, “wedding ring”, so he doesn’t feel as bad for what could happen. However, he recognises that her trying to forget/hide her marriage could make it worse. In the first verse, the instrumental relaxes and as Alex Turner quickly talks through his night and how he has met a girl who has a boyfriend. She tried to convince him that her boyfriend won’t mind, and it won’t get the writer in trouble, but Turner isn’t stupid and knows it could become a disaster. The drums are added back in halfway through this verse and progressively creates tension until we have an instrumental before a chorus. In the final verse, the writer gives up the contemplation of going through with helping this girl cheat on her partner, shown in the line, “And then the first time it occurred that there was something to destroy”. My favourite line from this track is, “Do the bad thing, take off your wedding ring”.
Overall Rating — 10/10
11. Old Yellow Bricks
Wow, the riff for this track is amazing! It comes and goes throughout the track, and I long for it to come back as the mystery builds in the verses, and I longingly anticipate it returning. This song appears to be about a character leaving their life behind because they were kidding people that they knew what they wanted to do and that moving to a new city was the right thing for them. It appears that this person has made the wrong choice because things aren’t what they thought they were going to be. The ending line, “But Dorothy was right though” is a reference to the Wizard of Oz, and how there is no place like home. My favourite line from this song is, “You’re at a loss, just because, it wasn’t all that you thought it was”.
Overall Rating — 8/10
12. 505
Another brilliant popular track and what a way to close the album. It’s unlike anything they had released up to that date and everything about the track is perfect. It opens with organ synth chords, which can also be heard in the finale of the movie — ‘The Good, The Bad and The Ugly ‘. They’re suspenseful and are a great place to start with to help build the tension in the song. This track opens with the iconic lines, “I’m going back to 505, if it’s a seven-hour flight or a forty-five-minute drive”, which I think even non-Arctic Monkeys fans will know. Throughout the first verse, guitar chords are strummed with a reverb effect on them, and the drums and bass are added shortly after. In this long verse, the writer is describing his obsession with this girl, and how he wants her back but is also scared that he no longer meets her standards. He feels like they’re in the “middle adventure” and they should resume the relationship. After the second chorus, the song has been well layered and built up and what comes next is unbelievable. The song absolutely kicks off and Alex Turners vocals are unreal. I love them on the line, “But I crumble completely when you cry”. There is a brilliant outro to this song, with the iconic riff that subtly could be heard as the song was building tension. My favourite line from this song is, “I’d probably still adore you with your hands around my neck”.
Overall Rating — 10/10
Favourite Track — Brianstorm
Favourite Line — “She walked away, well her shoes were untied, and the eyes were all red, you could see that we’d cried”.
