The Age of the Understatement

2.33

Quite average rock

Arctic Monkeys swagger mixed with a cool surf guitar sound and a 60s Bond swishy orchestral arrangements makes for a very fun, stylish sugar rush of an album.

Just two years after the maestro himself peaked in his experimental late-career phase with The Drift, two British boys (barely adults and still one of them already spearheaded the new British wave of post-punk-ish indie in the mid-2000s), decided to make a Scott Walker (circa Scott 2-4) pastiche record. It wasn’t something that won me over when it was initially released. Maybe it was because I was still a teen, and anything that sounded vaguely like grandeur drenched in Morricone-style string arrangements seemed automatically like the product of some pseudo-intellectual bourgeois. But now that I’m older and wiser, I can finally correct my ignorant past self and say: this is a pretty decent record and proof of just that would be My Mistakes Were Made For You. Plus, the line “Declaring war on the underclass / Public enemy, I guess / But we’ll find out in the end” in the album opener actually speaks against my initial “bourgeoisie” suspicion, haha.

Alex Turner has always been a great lyricist, and his texts work quite well in their orchestral incantation on The Age of the Understatement. The album sounded far more ambitious than his prior work with Arctic Monkeys, and in retrospect, you can tell that - rather unusual for a side project - the writing and recording of this album influenced the trajectory of Turner’s “main” career. Just play this back to back to Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino…

Unlike Scott Walker’s career, I don’t love the “later” Arctic Monkeys albums. This is why The Age of the Understatement is a rare example where I think Turner’s artistic vision and crooner-style really shine in such a highly embellished musical setting. So it’s a blessing that this collection exists. By the way, Miles Kane: his voice blends well with Turner’s - especially the vocal interplay is great but it reeks like Alex Turner must be the brainchild of most of these songs. But sometimes to add vibe is just as important.

Ocean's 11 heeft heel wat kritiek ontvangen. Het zou met een klassiek script en vooral veel bekende acteurs alle elementen hebben om een mega film te worden. Dat viel tegen. Niet dat het een slechte film werd. Maar het miste de ziel om een kans te maken om vereeuwigd te blijven in de IMDB250. Al die sterke elementen moeten wel duidelijk naar voren komen en vechten daardoor eerder met elkaar dan dat ze elkaar versterken.

Nu mogen we luisteren naar de Ocean's 11 van de muziekalbums. Alle sterke elementen zijn aanwezig. De muzikanten komen als schrijver en zanger van gevestigde orde. Het geluid is loepzuiver opgenomen. Maar als geheel mist het de ziel, waardoor het een kwalitatief sterke vergeetbare 3+ wordt.

Unmistakable Alex Turner vocals set against cinematic 60s style orchestra backdrop.

Was ein Überraschungsalbum für mich. Passiert ja nicht so häufig. 2008 dacht ich mir, kann nix geiles bei rumkommen. Aber ich liebe die Stimme vom Arctic Monkey Sänger, gepaart mit diesem geilen Rocksound. Trifft genau meinen Geschmack. Kommt mit in meine Rotation. 5 Sterne

I’m at a 5.

I’ve had a pretty healthy respect for Arctic Monkeys for a while, and I think I might’ve read about this side project from Alex Turner once on a Wikipedia dive, but I’ve never listened to it until now. Of course, calling this an Alex Turner side project sort of undermines how much of a group effort this truly is, so some big kudos to Miles Kane, James Ford & Zach Dawes.

With that said… yeah, this is an Alex Turner side project. It is not another Arctic Monkeys album, instead opting for a more cinematic feel, inspired by stuff like James Bond soundtracks, golden age Hollywood (the strings are SO good on this album) & spaghetti westerns of the 60s, blended with some of the indie rock sensibilities of Arctic Monkeys (& everyone else within that general style) to create a really cool set of tracks that feel really captivating, even without the lyrics or vocals to go with them.

It is a blessing that the lyrics & vocals match their quality – in essence, this is a much, MUCH better version of “16 Lovers Lane” by the Go-Betweens, which our group got about 6 days ago. All of these tracks tackle the same ideas of breakups, manipulation, peer pressure, and more, but this album underlines them all with a true sense of lost connection & lost love, written with such earnesty that they all feel plausible, real, and more emotionally fruitful. That added sense of relatability ultimately gives a lot more for Alex Turner to work with vocally, and he knocks it out of the park. There’s a really strong flexibility to his voice, and while it’s explored a bit more on “AM” (which is CRIMINALLY not on this list), the earliest showcases of it are here, gliding through angrier & softer tones in a way that pulls the proper sense of emotion out of each track here.

If you’re not a fan of Arctic Monkeys or other bands with a similar style, this album will probably not hit like that. I loved this style though, and I really, really enjoyed this album – it’s a breezy 35 minutes that feels perfectly paced. If anything, I’m kicking myself for reading about this on Wikipedia years ago & not bothering to give it a listen, because this is right down my alley. One of the better albums from the back half of the 2000s that we’ve gotten so far, and a very easy 5 for me. Great stuff.

There doesn’t seem to be any understatements in this album, but I’m down for some Arctic Monkeys with a bit of a Western flair. Overall, I’m happy to have listened to this, but not really interested in listening to this again.

I don’t know what it is but I’ve just never really got into the Arctic Monkeys as a band. Not sure if it’s the lack of tuneful melodies or what but I just find a lot of their songs rather boring and awkward.

As for this, it didn’t feel much different from that but if anything was even less inspiring and duller so didn’t really enjoy it that much.

There is a fine line between creating a diverse yet cohesive album that has a singular point of view but also keeps it interesting for an hour... and just playing the same song for an hour. This is the latter. Not that it's a bad song. But this whole album could have been edited down to an enjoyable single.

‘The fairytale was climbing up / A mountain far too steep.’ That's a rare, inspired lyric moment. Musically impressive because lush and adequate but never honest, hardly a big deal. I’ll give it the benefit of the doubt b/c the songs are short and the production is good enough to overcome some of its shortcomings. But not that many of them. 'My Mistakes Were Made For You' is the strongest single - and 'I Don't Like You Anymore' has got punky oomph - but it's all a bit blandish, and the legitimately sexy orchestration ('The Meeting Place') isn’t merited.

More lackluster indie music from one of the dudes from Arctic Monkeys (Alex Turner). Not really my cup of tea, but not bad. Nothing really stands out to say "man, I really needed to listen to this record". It sounds like most other indie albums I've listened to (like those of Arcade Fire or Interpol)

Favourite songs: Separate and Ever Deadly, The Meeting Place, Calm Like You, In My Room

Least favourite songs: The Chamber, I Don't Like You Anymore

3/5

This was a pretty good Arctic Monkeys album. You just can’t take Alex Turner out of the band, you can give it a different name, but it’s still kinda the same. Liked a bunch of songs tho. Low 4

The Age Of The Understatement is a pretty decent album. The album gave a vibe of a 60s western movie throughout the majority of it's runtime with all of it's instrument choices (except for the last song which had a more romantic vibe). I thought that the songs here sound pretty good and could be pretty catchy and get their intended feel out well but they did feel a little too similar to each other. The album was a fairly quick one at around 35 minutes so the sameyness of the songs were not really too irritating to me. I wouldn't really call this a great album but it does do it's job pretty well.
Best Song: Black Plant
Worst Song: Time Has Come Again

I'm not usually crazy about supergroups but this one really works for me. I'm a big Arctic Monkeys fan and TLSP really sounds like Arctic Monkeys but more epic and cinematic. Great album.

Despite this being a supergroup of well known individuals, of an album with well played rock instruments with lush string embellishments, this album was relatively forgettable. I've listened to it 3 times now and when done i cant remember any distinct moments. Not bad by any stretch but a bit too derivative of other bands and styles without its own personality. 3/5

Interesting album. It wasn't bad, but I wasn't particularly enthusiastic about it either. It's questionable whether I'll listen to it again.
3/5

Love this album. Don’t think it should be here.

yea this is cool and vibey. Black Plant is cool.