Sunday, January 29, 2006

The Arctic Monkeys' debut hits #1 in the UK

Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not

Arctic Monkeys


Released: January 23, 2006


Peak: 24 US, 14 UK, 16 CN, 11 AU


Sales (in millions): 0.33 US, 1.38 UK, 2.71 world (includes US and UK)


Genre: garage rock revival


Tracks: (Click for codes to singles charts.)

  1. The View from the Afternoon (4/24/06, --)
  2. I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor (10/17/05, #1 UK, #7 MR)
  3. Fake Tales of San Francisco (5/30/05, --)
  4. Dancing Shoes
  5. You Probably Couldn’t See for the Lights But You Were Staring Right at Me
  6. Still Take You Home
  7. Riot Van
  8. Red Light Indicates Doors Are Secured
  9. Mardy Bum
  10. Perhaps Vampies Is a Bit Strong But…
  11. When the Sun Goes Down (1/16/06, #1 UK)
  12. From the Ritz to the Rubble
  13. A Certain Romance


Total Running Time: 40:56


The Players:

  • Alex Turner (vocals, guitar)
  • Jamie Cook (guitar, vocals)
  • Andy Nicholson (bass, vocals)
  • Matt Helders (drums, vocals)

Rating:

4.112 out of 5.00 (average of 26 ratings)


Quotable: The fastest selling debut in British history.


Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Album:

On the strength of MP3s of early demos posted on the web, the Arctic Monkeys went from “Internet phenomenon to the biggest band in the U.K.” AMG They became “the UK underground’s most proselytizing young preachers of the DIY gospel.” AZ When Whatever People Say I Am hit the streets, it sold 363,735 copies in its first week, selling more than the rest of the Top 20 combined and making it the fastest selling debut in British history. WK

“Last time such excitement surrounded a new British guitar band it was a decade earlier, as Britpop hit overdrive with the release of Oasis’ 1994 debut, Definitely Maybe. All four members of the Arctic Monkeys were a little bit shy of their tenth birthday at the time, a bit young to be sure, but old enough to have Oasis be their first favorite band. So, it’s little surprise that the Gallaghers’ laddism – celebrating nights out fueled by lager and loud guitars – is the bedrock foundation of the Arctic Monkeys, just the way as it has been for most British rock bands since the mid-‘90s.” AMG

The band delivered a “poetic punch-up of visceral rock ‘n’ roll” FO by “marrying nervy, caffeine-and-cigarettes indie clatter to conversational, pretense-free lyrics and the occasional burst of off-the-cuff eloquence.” AZ “With an atom-splitting opening riff and an agile beast blitzkrieg behind the drums” FO the Arctic Monkeys “made sense of the working-class adolescence that lay ahead of many fans.” FO The album “captures the energy of youth culture in such a way that it rattled anyone of age like a pinball in an earthquake.” FO Some consider Whatever to be “a concept album concerning the lives of young Northern England clubbers.” WK

Indeed, songs like first single I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor, Still Take You Home, and You Probably Couldn’t See the Lights But You Were Staring Straight at Me “all examine human behaviour in nightclubs.” WKFrom the Ritz to the Rubble is an account of nightclub bouncers, while When the Sun Goes Down was inspired by prostitutes…in the Neepsend district of Sheffield.” WK

“Look beyond the Arctics’ bristly, laddish exterior, however, because it’s actually affairs of the heart that comprise this album’s secret core: see the sweaty-palmed Dancing Shoes, bearing testament to the trial of nerves that is pulling in a suburban indie nightclub, or Mardy Bum – a tribute to a moody girlfriend that, for all its witty barbs (‘I’ve seen your frown and it’s like looking down the barrel of a gun’), is tinted with sweet affection.” LP

Also, “the Monkeys’ true musical ground zero is 2001, the year the Strokes stormed British consciousness with their debut, Is This It. The Arctic Monkeys borrow heavily from the Strokes’ stylized ennui, adding an equal element of the Libertines’ shambolic neo-classicist punk, undercut by a hint of dance-punk learned from Franz Ferdinand.” AMG

“The opening The View from the Afternoon predicts a ruckus with a whole lot more grit than the Kaisers can muster, while on the mellow Riot Van, a tale of underage drinking and cop-baiting culminates in a messy beating in the back of a station wagon.” LP

Whatever captures the band “jamming in too many angular riffs into too short of a space, tearing through the songs as quickly as possible. But where the Strokes camouflaged their songwriting skills with a laconic, take-it-or-leave-it sexiness and where the Libertines mythologized England with a junkie poeticism, the Arctic Monkeys at their heart are simple, everyday lads, lacking any sense of sex appeal or romanticism, or even the desire for either.” AMG “Lead singer/songwriter Alex Turner tells stories from their lives – mainly hookups on the dancefloor and underage drinking, balanced by the occasional imagined tragic tales of prostitution and the music industry.” AMG

However, “the band doesn't soar with youthful abandon, it merely raises a bit of noise in the background.” AMG Whatever sports a “dry production, sounding for all the world like an homage to Is This It – all clanking guitars and clattering drums, with most of the energy coming from the group’s sloppy call-and-response backing vocals.” AMG

The recycling of not-so-old sounds and styles can leave the Monkeys’ debut “surprisingly predictable” AMG but “the one thing that sets them apart, and does give them promise, is Alex Turner’s writerly ambitions.” AMG “While his words can be overcooked – allusions to Romeo & Juliet do not necessarily count as depth – he does tell stories, which does distinguish him from his first-person peers. But it's a double-edged sword, his gift: the very thing that sets him apart – his fondness for detail, his sense of place – may be the quality that makes his work resonate for thousands of young Britons, but they also tie him completely to a particular time and place that makes it harder to relate to for listeners who aren’t in his demographic or country (and perhaps time).” AMG

Resources and Related Links:


First posted 1/29/2012; last updated 4/28/2022.

Friday, January 20, 2006

High School Musical premiered on TV

High School Musical

Various Artists


Released: January 10, 2006


Charted: March 11, 2006


Peak: 12 US, 1 UK, 13 AU


Sales (in millions): 5.0 US, 1.2 UK, 9.44 world (includes US and UK)


Genre: pop


Tracks:

Song Title (Performers) [time] (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to charts.

  1. Start of Something New (Zac Efron, Vanessa Hudgens) [3:17] (2/11/06, 28 US)
  2. Get’cha Head in the Game (Zac Efron) [2:26] (2/4/06, 23 US)
  3. What I’ve Been Looking For (Ashley Tisdale, Lucas Grabeel) [2:04] (2/11/06, 35 US)
  4. What I’ve Been Looking For (Reprise) (Zac Efron, Vanessa Hudgens) [1:20] (2/11/06, 67 US)
  5. Stick to the Status Quo (Ashley Tisdale, Lucas Grabeel, Chris Warren Jr., Kaycee Stroh, Dutch Whitlock) [4:28] (2/11/06, 43 US)
  6. When There Was Me and You (Vanessa Hudgens) [3:00]
  7. Bop to the Top (Ashley Tisdale, Lucas Grabeel) [1:47] (2/11/06, 62 US)
  8. Breaking Free (Zac Efron, Vanessa Hudgens) [3:27] (2/4/06, 4 US, 9 UK)
  9. We’re All in This Together (Zac Efron, Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Tisdale, Lucas Grabeel, Corbin Bleu, Monique Coleman) [3:51] (2/11/06, 34 US, 40 UK)
  10. I Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You (Zac Efron, Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Tisdale, Lucas Grabeel) [2:51]
  11. Get’cha Head in the Game (B5) [2:43]
  12. Start of Something New (instrumental) [3:16]
  13. Breaking Free (instrumental) [3:27]

Rating:

3.739 out of 5.00 (average of 21 ratings)


Awards:

(Click on award to learn more).

About the Album:

Disney “struck platinum with High School Musical, a made-for-cable movie that was mega-popular on the Disney Channel before spawning a mega-popular soundtrack. Echoing Grease, the plot involves two students” EV who meet at a New Year’s Eve party while their families are on vacation at a ski lodge over winter break. “During a karaoke contest at the teen party, they discover their love for singing... and an interest in each other.” AZ However, Gabriella (Vanessa Hudgens) is a “shy transfer student who excels in math and science” WK1 and Troy (Zac Efron) is the captain of the basketball team. When they discover they go to the same high school, they try out for the lead parts in the high school musical “and challenge the status quo of their cliques in the process” AMG as they “resist peer pressure and rivalry, inspiring others along the way not to ‘stick to the status quo’.” WK1

“The movie’s soundtrack isn’t exactly challenging;” AMG “the songs are typical Disney pop: on the bland side but also very well-crafted.” EV “It does feature a pretty engaging mix of music and empowering messages, most of which can be found in earnest ballads such as Start of Something New, When There Was Me and You, and Breaking Free. Meanwhile, We’re All in This Together sets lyrics like ‘Everyone is special in their own way/ We make each other strong’ to music inspired by ‘Hollaback Girl’s marching-band/cheerleader motif.” AMG

“Among the standouts are Get’cha Head in the Game, which incorporates” EV “an urban pop melody” AMG with “noises from a basketball game (squeaking sneakers, bouncing balls, whistles) to great effect.” EV There’s also “the fab tribute to 1970s piano-pop What I’ve Been Looking ForEV which “flirts with satire” AMG because its “melody is so bright and the vocals so relentlessly cheery, it sounds like a parody of a show tune.” AMG It is “sung by the theater kids who are threatened by these upstarts from other cliques invading their territory.” AMG Similarly, the “big chorus” AMG on “the old-school show-tuney Stick to the Status QuoEV “urges everyone to just ‘go with the flow’.” AMG

“The music falters” EV when it “comes closer to sounding like the usual teen pop product issued by Disney, especially on I Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You and the Latin-flavored Bop to the Top.” AMG “Still, the album has enough personality to set it apart from the status quo of the studio’s other releases” AMG and can “get kids to bounce and sing along nicely.” EV

Resources and Related Links:


Other Related DMDB Pages:


First posted 1/20/2012; last updated 11/30/2022.

Saturday, January 7, 2006

Mary J. Blige hit #1 with “Be Without You” and The Breakthrough: January 7, 2006

Originally posted January 7, 2012.



LaShonda Barnett, author of I Got Thunder: Black Women Songwriters and Their Craft, wrote that the “authenticity, the emotional honesty and the vulnerability Blige reveals in her music” SF have much to do with many people calling Blige “our generation’s Aretha Franklin.” SF Indeed, “nobody knows heartache like Mary J. knows heartache.” TL Throughout her career, Blige has delivered dramatic “songs steeped in heartbreak and disappointment.” AK

Her seventh album, The Breakthrough, “features the best round of productions Blige has been handed since the mid-‘90s.” AK “Blige and producers Dr. Dre, Jimmy Jam, Terry Lewis, and Will.i.am tasked themselves with stirring a river of hurt into some of the highest-caliber hip-hop/soul to hit the airwaves since she burned up the Waiting to Exhale soundtrack with ‘Not Gon’ Cry’.” TL

The album’s lead single, “Be Without You”, became Blige’s biggest hit to date. It was her fifth Billboard R&B chart topper, peaking on that chart the same week The Breakthrough debuted atop the Billboard 200 album chart. “Without You” spent 15 weeks at the summit, making it the chart’s biggest hit in nearly 60 years. The last song to spend more weeks at #1 was Louis Jordan’s “Ain’t Nobody Here But Us Chickens” with 17 weeks in 1947. With a massive 75 weeks on the R&B chart, “Without You” also became the champion for most weeks total. WK

The song and album garnered Blige some Grammy gold. “Without You” won for Best R&B Song and Best Female R&B Vocal Performance and was also nominated for Record and Song of the Year. The Breakthough won a Grammy for Best R&B Album.


Awards for “Be Without You”:
Awards for The Breakthrough:
Resources and Related Links: