Wednesday, April 25, 2007

MTV USA news makes brave, solitary bid to start Arctic Monkeys backlash

Apparently unperturbed by the not bad reviews, ongoing slavish coverage and (looking into comments here, for example) still fanatical devotion to them, MTV News has written off the Arctic Monkeys, as part of a half-arsed attempt to lasso a bunch of second albums:

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah's Some Loud Thunder bowed in January, and has, to date, sold less than one-third of what their self-titled debut did — and has garnered thoroughly middling reviews, to boot. Bloc Party's sophomore album, A Weekend in the City, followed in February — though, to be honest, I had to Wiki that — and has all but disappeared from the cultural zeitgeist (as has the band, save frontman Kele Okereke's ever-entertaining, grammatically enlightened feud with Oasis). Most notably, the Arcade Fire's Neon Bible hit shelves in March, and though it debuted at #2 on the Billboard albums chart, it's quickly begun to drop down the charts and hasn't had nearly the, er, "life-affirming" effect that Funeral did (read: these guys no longer care).

And on Tuesday, the Arctic Monkeys' second album, Favourite Worst Nightmare, dropped, and though it's still early, I'll go out on a limb and say that it's not gonna have the same Stateside impact that Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not did. Call it a hunch.

Although, to be honest, 24 in the album charts and no singles at all scoring isn't much of a target to be aiming for.

At the moment, Nightmare is the fourth best seller on the American Amazon site. James Montgomery's limb might be looking a little dodgy.


2 comments:

DJ Samba said...

Just reading that quote offends me. "A Weekend in the City, followed in February — though, to be honest, I had to Wiki that — and has all but disappeared from the cultural zeitgeist"
Simply, wtf? Just because you say an album has dissapeared doesn't make it true. Yes, America is different to over hear, but i'm still willing to say whattalodabolox.

Also, critisising Neon Bible after saying it debuted at #2 is ridiculous! Personally, I think the albums pants, but I respect most people don't. And it's doing darn well for itself!

Still haven't heard favourite worst nightmare, but i've been told it's good. Something tells me the Monkeys won't mind either way, what with their "We want as little publicity as possible. Honest" Strategy.
--
52albums.blogspot.com

Anonymous said...

Arcade Fire's Neon Bible album has sold more, and recieved just as much plaudits as Funeral did.
WTF?

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