ARCTIC MONKEYS A MONKEY IN SILK This week, the Arctic Monkeys let loose their sophomore effort, 'Favourite Worst Nightmare'. Rarely has so much pressure been put on four young lads to prove they're not a flash in the pan. It's been a funny old year or two for the crew from Sheffield. They've seen their inaugural single and album debut at #1, had their bass player burn out then leave, and been subject to more press hyperbole than any group of human beings could ever live up to. So, given there was no way they could ever produce a second album to match the hype, Alex Turner and co. have mostly stuck to what their great at with 'Favourite Worst Nightmare', albeit, with a bit more extremity. "I think this is probably like, more like the extremes probably, the heavier stuff went a bit heavier and there's softer moments on this record I think, probably even like more stripped down than anything on the first as well. So it's probably just gone wider," explains singer, Alex Turner. Fortunately, Turner is a far more articulate lyricist than he is in interviews. He faced a lyrical hurdle with this record, though. The band's first record, 'Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not', was adored for its highly personal tales of the British every-day. So, with the band having spent the last year touring and being showered with cash and praise, how is Turner to write from experience without creating a tiresome rock-star-on-the-road confessional record? "I don't think it's specifically about things that happened like last year and stuff," Turner says about the record's lyrics. "Although a bit of it is and some [of the lyrics are] about people that we sort of met during that time, or incidents that happened during that time that maybe lead to like... yeah...but definitely not as specific as the first record where every song was about a particular incident - which I think was the sound for then. "We sort of wanted to get away from that little bit. I wouldn't ever want to write about them things again because that's done and I don't think you could do that any better than what we kind of did." Turner goes on to say that he's "dead proud of the words on this album." The lyrics, however, weren't the only area where the band found themselves achieving outside their comfort zone this time around. The tracks off the first record were already crackling with energy and assuredness from relentless live performance prior to recording, thus enabling them to bash them out quite quickly in the studio. This time, the lads found getting their new tracks to tape a tad harder. "We were a bit disappointed; we were trying to do it a bit quicker really. Trying to do it like, so it came out to the day, to the same [day] as we got the first one out. We were trying to get it out faster but it looks like it'll be April. Which is still quite a good turnaround I think." The silver lining of the extended studio-period was extra time to play around with new arrangements and sonics. "We got more into like sounds and stuff and we just wanted to make it interesting," Turner says. "It's quite like; we paid a lot of attention to drums and stuff like. We've always done that but we [did] more to it this time. We tried to do interesting rhythms and like not just straightforward structures and stuff." Helping them along were producers James Ford and Mike Crossey - who almost produced the first record, before the lads decided to look elsewhere. "We always thought there were a bit of unfinished business with them," Turner muses. "We always got on with them well and that so we thought we'd try it again with them and that, and it sort of worked out. "I think that's because, like I were saying before, with the first record everything was so like, nailed on, and we knew what the songs were and that. Whereas this [time] it were more of a blank canvas. So we all sort of worked it out together and that, and it were a good like, dunno, like a good team and that." Yuri Koskov-Koskov 'Favourite Worst Nightmare' is out now on EMI records. The Arctic Monkeys appear at Splendour in the Grass on August 5. back to top ^

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