by Aaron Ross, assistant editor

 The Hype:

Arctic Monkeys is a band from Sheffield, England. Their debut album “Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not,” charted number one in England, and became the fastest selling debut album in British music history, shifting over 360,000 copies in its first week, and remains the fastest selling debut album by a band there. The album is on nearly every critic’s best of 2000’s list, and many regard it a milestone in modern rock.

The Reality:

The album perhaps does not live up to the mountain of hype that surrounds it, but it sure doesn’t shy away from it either. The band itself certainly realizes this: this first lyrics off the album, “anticipation has the habit to set you up for disappointment” quickly followed by, “but tonight there will be some love” perfectly sum up the album.

It’s over-hyped, but nonetheless good.

The first half of the album is made up of musically similar fast-paced, clean rock songs. Arctic Monkeys take rock and distill to its cleanest, most pop orientated form. Though these songs all have a similar structure and rhythm, the energy of the combined speed of the instruments as well as the vocals make them all solid.

The back half is where they begin to show some of their song writing skills. “Riot Van” is a slow ballad–not original, but quite charming and endearing.

In short:

Though they lack swagger and experience, the Arctic Monkeys’ debut certainly shows off the seeds of greatness within them.