Bah ‘Humbug’

“Humbug,” the third major-label album from the English band the Arctic Monkeys, hit stores on August 25. While many may have initially looked forward to its release, the fact that the sound of this album contrasts that of previous albums might surprise them.

The band from across the pond first attracted attention from the American music industry when their single, “I Bet You Look Good on the Dance Floor,” hit air waves in late 2005. This single, like much of their debut album “Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not,” contains lyrics that are delivered swiftly with attitude over fast-paced music.

Their second album, “Favourite Worst Nightmare,” released in 2007, was much more versatile in terms of sound. While some songs followed the fast nature of their previous album, the tempo and lyrics of other songs like “505” and “Do Me a Favour” is much slower, but often captivates the listener by ending with a louder, edgier clash of music and lyrics at the end.

While both of their albums contained similarly structured songs, “Humbug” is far different. The album reveals a more subdued side of the Arctic Monkeys. The songs are predominantly slow and the lyrics are consistently sung in medium-low range, rarely getting too loud or bold. Although this change of pace reveals a new side of the band, it might take listeners a while to warm up to the altered sound.

“Crying Lightning,” the first single off the album, sets the tone and gives listeners an idea of what to expect from the album. The song starts off with a simple yet funky beat, and is followed by lead singer Alex Turner singing the opening lyrics cautiously. Turner’s laidback method of singing is continuous throughout the duration of the song. Even though Turner’s approach is subtle, it’s still effective and fits in well with the accompanying music.

The song “Dangerous Animals” starts with a simple beat and lyrics are sung fairly, somewhere in the medium range. Throughout the song, the words of the title are spelled out; this is repetitive and catchy at the same time.

“Secret Door” offers a wide range of sound combining fast, medium and slow vocals, along with both fast- and slow-paced music. The song contains so much variety that it sounds like three songs blended into one.

Listeners that are familiar with the band’s first two albums will be pleased to hear the song “Pretty Visitors.” The song is upbeat and cheeky, two characteristics synonymous with the band’s sound.

“Cornerstone” is one of the most interesting songs on the album, simply because it doesn’t sound like the Arctic Monkeys. It’s sung slowly over a medium tempo – it’s pleasant, but falls short of sounding modern. There are no innovative guitar riffs, and the drums maintain a simple beat throughout the song.

“Cornerstone” sounds quite dated – it’s reminiscent of a mellow ‘70s song that would have probably gotten heavy rotation on the radio back in those days. Listeners could easily imagine slow dancing to this song in a dimly lit room filled with people and rotating colorful lights. Turner sings of imaging that he’s seeing this special someone everywhere, from a place called “The Rusty Hook,” to another location called “The Parrots Beak.” After describing close encounter after close encounter, listeners will be pleased when the singer finally meets up with the mystery woman at the end of the song.

The final song, “The Jeweler’s Hands,” is the longest and flattest song of the album. The lyrics are sung in a slow dreary tone, making it difficult to fully gravitate to and pay attention to the song. The continuous melancholy tone might make a listener fast forward to the end so that the song will finally be over.

“Humbug” will leave listeners either pleasantly surprised or dissatisfied. Overall, though, “Humbug” is very different from previously released albums from the Arctic Monkeys. The slow-paced, calmer sound is quite a change from the energetic and spirited sound of previous releases. Fans may perceive the album in two ways: They might be excited to hear the band produce a different sound that is foreign to what they’re familiar with, or they might be disappointed that the band hasn’t followed suit with the sound they’ve grown accustomed to.