What Ever People Say

“What ever people say I am, that’s what I’m not” The greatest album ever? To many probably not, but to me, it’s a clear winner. When the Arctic Monkeys released their first single back in 2005 guitar music was out, The Strokes weren’t so cool, and the Libertines had imploded, Rap music dominated the charts, and unless you’re a millionaire or ‘wanna’ be gangster you can’t exactly relate. The Arctic Monkeys changed all this. They made guitar music cool again and their tales of one night stands, angry taxi drivers and underage drinking was something that the majority of teenagers can relate to.

The music was great, and the lyrics were even better. Alex Turner mastered how to make everyday events sound like poetry. The words were clever but yet very obvious. They weren’t overly abstract. They were simple, anyone could understand. “These two lads squaring up proper shouting, bout who was next in the queue, the kind of thing that would seem so silly but not when they've both had a few”. Everyone can understand what that means. Combined with killer choruses and tune’s you can dance to it they were on to a winner.

That album made people pick up guitars again, just like, Is This It and Defiantly Maybe did before it breathed life back in to guitar music. Going to gigs was cool again, and all the girls wanted the boys in the band. It gave a passage for other great bands to follow. Even bands like Kasabian and The Killers who were around before the Monkeys reaped the benefits of their success. Sheffield became a hub for music with Milburn, Little Man Tate and Reverend and The Makers all jumping on the band wagon. However they would all be in the shadow of the Monkeys.

It was the most important album in over twenty years, and the album that changed my life. A big statement I know, but if it didn’t happen? I would have been a chav.