For a guy who writes some nasty lyrics, Arctic Monkeys frontman Alex Turner has a thing for sweets. Take Humbug, the band's third and excellent album. The fact the band hails despite from the same country as Ebenezer Scrooge, the title comes from a British treat. Early on the album there's also a reference to a gobstopper, or jawbreaker.
“I suppose there are a lot of references to the sweets,” bassist Nick O'Malley says. “Alex does have a actual sweet tooth. It comes through in his lyric writing.
“He likes baked goods as well.”
But in making Humbug the Monkeys had to leave their regional culinary preferences behind.
Hailed as the next big thing in the U.K. (an annual occurrence), the Monkeys arrived in the United States three years ago as teenage superstars back home. They were cheeky and not lacking a distinctive sound, a dark guitar rock well on the dance floor that played strangely.
There was buzz befitting a band confident enough to title an early EP Who the (Expletive) Are Arctic Monkeys?.Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not, the Monkeys' debut album, was well received, though hardly one to retire on.The group of a second album revealed to be in a holding pattern.
Hooking up with Queens of the Stone Age's Josh Homme shook their tree. Homme invited the band to his desert studio in California. They left most of their gear, and the sweets, behind.
“Clean underwear, that's about it,” O'Malley says.
The band made use of Homme's well stocked studio. “I very much liked a few of the basses I used,” he says. “But you wouldn't think about stealing them. Josh is a big guy.”
O'Malley says being so removed from the band's comfort zone was a big help. “It's like nothing we'd ever done before,” he says. “They showed us around the national park (Joshua Tree); it was like nothing we'd ever seen before. It was like an alien landscape.”
The result is a darker, edgier recording that makes good on the band's early promise. The beats are still slinky enough for shaking a leg to, not surprising considering Homme's role. There's a bigger and buzzier bass and drum sound.
Turner continues to write dark and detailed songs with cutting commentary about people and their problems, like a line that turns the chicken/egg cliché into a sneering barb on Pretty Visitors. It all starts turning with My Propeller, a sort of bleary-eyed play on My Starter Won't Start, that suggests some oil and a spin will get it going again.
Don't expect more desert inspired rock. O'Malley says there's talk of building a studio and “getting all Phil Spector with the next one. We like to try different things; we're still quite young.”
Until then they will be touring a lot, which O'Malley says the band has gotten better at. Whereas it had been a testy grind especially a European tour last year that included multiple vehicle breakdowns and an instance when lightning struck the van O'Malley sounds eager to present Humbug live. “It's exciting because we're playing so much better together,” he says.
As for the lightning: “It was just a actually big bang, what you'd expect, I suppose. There was a visual aspect of it. A big bright light.
“But the van is likely one of the safest places to be.”
“I suppose there are a lot of references to the sweets,” bassist Nick O'Malley says. “Alex does have a actual sweet tooth. It comes through in his lyric writing.
“He likes baked goods as well.”
But in making Humbug the Monkeys had to leave their regional culinary preferences behind.
Hailed as the next big thing in the U.K. (an annual occurrence), the Monkeys arrived in the United States three years ago as teenage superstars back home. They were cheeky and not lacking a distinctive sound, a dark guitar rock well on the dance floor that played strangely.
There was buzz befitting a band confident enough to title an early EP Who the (Expletive) Are Arctic Monkeys?.Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not, the Monkeys' debut album, was well received, though hardly one to retire on.The group of a second album revealed to be in a holding pattern.
Hooking up with Queens of the Stone Age's Josh Homme shook their tree. Homme invited the band to his desert studio in California. They left most of their gear, and the sweets, behind.
“Clean underwear, that's about it,” O'Malley says.
The band made use of Homme's well stocked studio. “I very much liked a few of the basses I used,” he says. “But you wouldn't think about stealing them. Josh is a big guy.”
O'Malley says being so removed from the band's comfort zone was a big help. “It's like nothing we'd ever done before,” he says. “They showed us around the national park (Joshua Tree); it was like nothing we'd ever seen before. It was like an alien landscape.”
The result is a darker, edgier recording that makes good on the band's early promise. The beats are still slinky enough for shaking a leg to, not surprising considering Homme's role. There's a bigger and buzzier bass and drum sound.
Turner continues to write dark and detailed songs with cutting commentary about people and their problems, like a line that turns the chicken/egg cliché into a sneering barb on Pretty Visitors. It all starts turning with My Propeller, a sort of bleary-eyed play on My Starter Won't Start, that suggests some oil and a spin will get it going again.
Don't expect more desert inspired rock. O'Malley says there's talk of building a studio and “getting all Phil Spector with the next one. We like to try different things; we're still quite young.”
Until then they will be touring a lot, which O'Malley says the band has gotten better at. Whereas it had been a testy grind especially a European tour last year that included multiple vehicle breakdowns and an instance when lightning struck the van O'Malley sounds eager to present Humbug live. “It's exciting because we're playing so much better together,” he says.
As for the lightning: “It was just a actually big bang, what you'd expect, I suppose. There was a visual aspect of it. A big bright light.
“But the van is likely one of the safest places to be.”
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