Arctic Monkeys B-Sides & Rarities Project – 7

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The Arctic Monkeys B-Side & Rarities Project was inspired by Matthew Perpetua’s Pop Songs 07-08 project, and was first introduced on November 19, 2007 and it ended there. On March 21, 2009, Pretty Much Amazing reached out to a person with a lot more Arctic Monkey credentials, the man who named his music blog after a string of words Alex Turner wrote while try to figure out “Who The f**k Are The Arctic Monkeys”: Will Oliver from We All Want Someone To Shout For.

Arctic Monkeys – 7
The goal of this series of posts is fairly simple, I am going to write a post about all of the Arctic Monkeys B-Sides, non-album tracks, bootlegs and other rarities. I have no clue how long this will take, or even if I will finish it, but it should be a fun ride. You might be curious as to why I’d select the Arctic Monkeys as the subject of such scrutiny. To be frank, the Arctic Monkeys are one of the only bands of which I can honestly say that I saw flounder and flourish from beginning to present. I feel that I can relate to their music, along with everyone else that’s young and living their life in all its blundering glory.

The Arctic Monkeys were rammed into my life in 2004 when a friend of mine told me to listen to the latest band to come from across the pond. A full two years before their debut album was released, Beneath the Boardwalk was my first taste of the Arctics and I haven’t stopped nibbling yet.

Now that you know the story behind the relationship I have with the Arctic Monkeys, I think it’s time to get onto the first song we will be looking at, in part of this ongoing project — “7.” 

“When The Sun Goes Down” (aka Scummy Man) gets credit as one of the Arctic’s signature songs. Of course, after “I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor” got annoying, non-fans jump on “Scummy Man” as if on autopilot. With good reason too, Scummy is the only true three-dimensional song on Whatever… and illustrates prolific storytelling swamped between extraordinary meat’n’potatoes guitars.

While a standout single, “7″, a b-side on the When The Sun Goes Down EP, still stands as one of the Arctic Monkeys’ best non-album tracks to date. The track has Alex Turner’s signature teen awkward expertise written all over it, even down to the la la la’s. Alex spits witty I want you now’s over raw jumpy guitars. This song is pretty damn near perfect for any twentysomething year old (or 19 year old in Turner’s case) feeling that initial attraction clumsiness: “Well I’m looking and you kept staring/ Your thoughts bearing up with mine/ And when you’re so pretty and I’m so shy/ You probably didn’t give me the eye but I’m sure you did.”

[download#37]_

by Luis Tovar on March 21, 2009 ‡ 1 reaction