3.5/10

The Arctic Monkeys need no introduction, having been one of most highly sought after and prolific rock & roll outfits of the last decade. As such, the release of their 5^th Studio album entitled ‘AM’ has undoubtedly been met with mass amounts of hype from their abundance fans worldwide.

Front man Alex Turner stated in an interview that the vision behind the new project was to create a new record “that’d be boss in your car” – pursuing a new infused sound that  “sounds a bit like a hip-hop beat”. This new experimentalist idea was immediately apparent and seemed to be crisply executed in the form of the first single and opening track of the album ‘Do I Wanna Know?’ The punchy and industrial-like thumping beat that commences the track gives off a mild hip-hop feel as the tune culminates with the help of some heavy prog rock enthused guitars which, in hindsight, make for a rather premature highlight on the album.

It is clear that this forward-thinking and ferocious rock and roll song writing style that the Arctic Monkeys had made such a name for in their earlier works (and was indeed teased to, to a small extent in ‘Do I Wanna Know?’) would not, by any means, permeate through the rest of the album. Not only this, but it seems that as an impartial observer, the Arctic Monkeys are now succumbing to the significant problem faced by the majority of bands that are granted gargantuan initial success in their musical careers; failing to live up to the extraordinarily high expectations set by their former selves.

The progression innovation in the bands releases have only seemed to spiral downwards from since the release of their debut LP ‘Whatever People Say I Am That’s What I’m Not’ and AM is no exception. The album concisely delivers 41 minutes of instrumentation, lyricism or song writing that bears not even the remote ability of being able to fill the void where the energy and excitement of a once thriving Arctic Monkeys used to stand.

The album in many respects, carries on in a similar vein where the finished up in their last record ‘Suck it and See’ opting for a more polished production and matured song writing style. However, where ‘Suck it and See’ may have at least held some merits ‘AM’ sees the Arctic Monkeys fall victim to plummeting even further down this creativity deprived death hole as it were – cooking up some of their most formulaic and tired tracks to date, now riding the success of their former glories all the way to the bank.

It would seem that the Arctic Monkeys of old are now dead. RIP 😦

Favorite tracks – ‘Do I Wanna Know?’

Least Favorite tracks – Pretty much everything else.