Had my sit down. Really loving it. And just laughing, because I'm the strangest Arctic Monkeys fan. Didn't really care for AM, but am loving this one instantly. Alex Turner is so much better when he's looking at the stars and not his dick. The lyrics on this album are hilarious. And also just so memorable. There's actually too many to post. What other album do you hear about quantitative easing and grandfathering?!
Star Treatment is fucking stellar, just adore the lush vibe on this one, and what a fucking opening line! Feels like a little bit of a wink to Five Years, too. I mean the whole album feels like a wink to the great man. It's a bit odd having two tracks that feature that pinched piano that reminds me so much of Grizzly Bear's Two Weeks (One Point Perspective and The World's First Ever Monster Truck Front Flip). The part in the former where Turner sings, "I've been driving around listening to the scoooooooooooreeeee" is pure Bowie. Such a great moment. Love that dark, driving piano on American Sports. GAF, I also get a big Beatles vibe from Golden Trunks, maybe Happiness is a Warm Gun. Four Out of Five fucking rules, probably the best song for mine.
Science Fiction has one of the best lines I reckon: "I tried to write a song to make you blush / but I've a feeling that the whole thing may well just end up too clever for its own good". And then a beat, and then "the way some science fiction does". That beat then twisting of the knife is so funny to me.
She Looks Like Fun is probably my least favourite so far, though I do still really like it, just find the initial crunches and, to use a storied Interf meme, the parts where he sings "she looks like fun" to be a bit off-putting. But then again, it too has one of the album's best and fucking funniest lyrics: "no one's on the streets / we moved it all online as of March".
Won't hear a bad word about Batphone, it has this slinky, darkened jazz room, mid-70s Bowie vibe to it (I'm sure there's a ton of other influences lol I just can't think of them) and it's the best song on the album lyrically. How fucking good is this line: "I launch my fragrance called Integrity / I sell the fact I can't be bought" immediately followed by "have I told you all about the time that I got sucked into a hole through a hand-held device?", taking the piss out of those stupid fucking vapid photos where people's faces are getting sucked into iPhones. And then it winds out with the slow waltz of The Ultracheese, which is really pretty, and - SORRY - is the Rock 'n' Roll Suicide of this album, though I wish it really went for it at the end like that song does, it kind of ends a little limply. The most touching song lyrically, with its nostalgia, whether it's for relationships or an idyllic version of America that's never existed. There's also one moment that is really really beautiful - about the 2:20 mark, where he sings "I've still got pictures of friends on the wall", and there's one piano note at that moment that is just one of those super emotional piano notes, like a second piano comes in or something. It lasts one second then goes again. Not sure if anyone else picked up on that?
So yeah, great album haha, Star Treatment, Four Out of Five and Batphone my favs at the mo