Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not
Encyclopedia
Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not is the debut album by English indie rock
band Arctic Monkeys
, released on 23 January 2006. The album became the UK
's fastest selling debut album, shifting over 360,000 copies in its first week, and remains the fastest selling debut album by a band. It has since gone quadruple platinum
in the UK . The album includes both tracks from the band's original EP
, Five Minutes with Arctic Monkeys
, as well as their first two singles and UK Number Ones, "I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor
" and "When the Sun Goes Down". It has since appeared in several critics' publications, and is often cited as one of the best rock albums of the 2000s.
concerning "the lives of young Northern England
clubbers". All tracks record first-person narratives of observations made within this context. "I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor", "Still Take You Home", "You Probably Couldn't See For The Lights But You Were Staring Straight At Me" and "Dancing Shoes" all examine human behaviour in nightclubs. Alex Turner describes "Dancing Shoes" as being about "people always looking to pull when they go out however much they mask it." Other songs examine other aspects of nightlife
; "From The Ritz To The Rubble" is an account of nightclub bouncers, while "When The Sun Goes Down" was inspired by prostitutes in the locality of their practice room in the Neepsend
district of Sheffield
. Other songs are themed on romantic relationships, such as "Mardy Bum", or youth subcultures, such as "Fake Tales of San Francisco" and "A Certain Romance". In NME
s list of top 100 tracks of the decade, "A Certain Romance" was described as "a strangely even-handed song which starts out scorning local townies then appears to absolve them at the end of the song."
The original release date was 30 January 2006, but was brought forward to 23 January 2006 due to "high demand". Although the same was done with Franz Ferdinand
, it was speculated that the move was an attempt to counter the effects of the album's leak onto online file-sharing
sites. The re-recorded album versions had been leaked onto the internet by December 2005.
On the first day of its release, the album became the fastest-selling debut album in British history, selling just under 120,000 copies. By the end of the week, the album had sold 363,735 copies - more than the rest of the Top 20 combined and making it the overall fastest selling debut album in British history.
Its release in the United States on 21 February 2006 saw it become the second fastest selling debut indie album in history, turning over around 34,000 copies in its first week and achieving #24 in the album charts. The album also went to #1 in Australia
and Ireland
.
The track "Mardy Bum", while not released as a single, appeared on radio playlists throughout the UK in mid-2006, and is still played infrequently on BBC Radio 1
and some alternative rock stations such as Sirius XM's Sirius XMU. The track "A Certain Romance" was ranked #90 in Pitchfork Media
's Top 100 Tracks of 2006 and cited as the standout track. NME also placed "A Certain Romance" at 10 in their list of 100 Tracks of the Decade. In October 2011, NME
placed it at number 140 on its list "150 Best Tracks of the Past 15 Years".
written by Alan Sillitoe
. The name was chosen after Turner recognised similarities between the two works and the appropriateness of the title. He said that "it’s good because the book is called Saturday Night And Sunday Morning and that’s kind of what the album is, so there’s a link there. And also, there’s a lot of people saying a lot of things about us and you don’t have control over it." He also said that "songs including 'The View from the Afternoon', 'Dancing Shoes', 'Still Take You Home' and 'From the Ritz to the Rubble' all cover that bit of the weekend and feature the same character."
work of the album is a photo of Chris McClure — a friend of the band, frontman of The Violet May
and brother of Jon McClure
of Reverend and the Makers
— taken in the early hours of the morning in Korova
bar, Liverpool
after the band had given him, his cousin and his best friend "seventy quid
to spend on a night out". The image caused some controversy when the head of Scotland's NHS
criticised the cover for "reinforcing the idea that smoking is okay". The band's product manager denied the accusation, and in fact suggested the opposite: "You can see from the image smoking is not doing him the world of good." In March 2006, McClure announced that he would be giving up smoking, due to lack of funds, though it has been recently reported that his attempts to do so have failed. Billboard
advertisements for the album used a similar image to the cover picture, but without the cigarette.
rating of 82 and featuring highly in many year-end lists and being hailed as a modern classic. Many critics and figures in the British Media hyped the Arctic Monkeys and their rapid rise to acclaim through unconventional means and some even cited the Arctic Monkeys as revolutionising the way people find music as they built a fanbase on the basis of a few demos shared by fans through the internet. NME declared them "Our Generation's Most Important Band" and Alex Turner's lyrics and depiction of Sheffield and the night lives of teenagers in particular praised with him being labelled as a "master of observation" and USA Today
claiming "you probably won't hear better CD all year long" and calling it "utterly infectious". MusicOMH
wrote that it was the sort of guitar rock that "makes you fall in love with music all over again" and along with many other critics cited "A Certain Romance" as the standout track and as being "a wonderfully articulate dissection of youth culture that belies Turner's tender years". It was however, noted that some of the tracks which had previously been released on the internet as demos had lost some of their quality and "don't sound as good".
In 2009 the album was voted the 9th greatest album ever by MTV from an online poll voted for by fans.
http://www.mtv.co.uk/entertainment/greatest-album-ever/competition/mtvs-greatest-album-ever
Indie rock
Indie rock is a genre of alternative rock that originated in the United Kingdom and the United States in the 1980s. Indie rock is extremely diverse, with sub-genres that include lo-fi, post-rock, math rock, indie pop, dream pop, noise rock, space rock, sadcore, riot grrrl and emo, among others...
band Arctic Monkeys
Arctic Monkeys
Arctic Monkeys are an English indie rock band. Formed in 2002 in High Green, a suburb of Sheffield, the band currently consists of Alex Turner , Jamie Cook , Nick O'Malley and Matt Helders...
, released on 23 January 2006. The album became the UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
's fastest selling debut album, shifting over 360,000 copies in its first week, and remains the fastest selling debut album by a band. It has since gone quadruple platinum
Music recording sales certification
Music recording sales certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped or sold a certain number of copies, where the threshold quantity varies by type and by nation or territory .Almost all countries follow variations of the RIAA certification categories,...
in the UK . The album includes both tracks from the band's original EP
Extended play
An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...
, Five Minutes with Arctic Monkeys
Five Minutes with Arctic Monkeys
Five Minutes with Arctic Monkeys is the debut EP by Sheffield band Arctic Monkeys. Released on 30 May 2005, it featured a re-recording of fan favourite "Fake Tales of San Francisco" and new song and B-side "From the Ritz to the Rubble". It was a limited release by Bang Bang Recordings - a label was...
, as well as their first two singles and UK Number Ones, "I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor
I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor
-Charts:-External links:* Mapped on Platial....
" and "When the Sun Goes Down". It has since appeared in several critics' publications, and is often cited as one of the best rock albums of the 2000s.
Composition and content
The common thematic content of Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not has led to it being considered by some a concept albumConcept album
In music, a concept album is an album that is "unified by a theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, narrative, or lyrical." Commonly, concept albums tend to incorporate preconceived musical or lyrical ideas rather than being improvised or composed in the studio, with all songs contributing...
concerning "the lives of young Northern England
Northern England
Northern England, also known as the North of England, the North or the North Country, is a cultural region of England. It is not an official government region, but rather an informal amalgamation of counties. The southern extent of the region is roughly the River Trent, while the North is bordered...
clubbers". All tracks record first-person narratives of observations made within this context. "I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor", "Still Take You Home", "You Probably Couldn't See For The Lights But You Were Staring Straight At Me" and "Dancing Shoes" all examine human behaviour in nightclubs. Alex Turner describes "Dancing Shoes" as being about "people always looking to pull when they go out however much they mask it." Other songs examine other aspects of nightlife
Nightlife
Nightlife is the collective term for any entertainment that is available and more popular from the late evening into the early hours of the morning...
; "From The Ritz To The Rubble" is an account of nightclub bouncers, while "When The Sun Goes Down" was inspired by prostitutes in the locality of their practice room in the Neepsend
Neepsend
Neepsend is a suburb of the city of Sheffield, it stands just north east of the city centre. The main area of Neepsend covers the flood plain of the River Don from Lady's Bridge at the Wicker up to Hillfoot Bridge...
district of Sheffield
Sheffield
Sheffield is a city and metropolitan borough of South Yorkshire, England. Its name derives from the River Sheaf, which runs through the city. Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, and with some of its southern suburbs annexed from Derbyshire, the city has grown from its largely...
. Other songs are themed on romantic relationships, such as "Mardy Bum", or youth subcultures, such as "Fake Tales of San Francisco" and "A Certain Romance". In NME
NME
The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...
s list of top 100 tracks of the decade, "A Certain Romance" was described as "a strangely even-handed song which starts out scorning local townies then appears to absolve them at the end of the song."
Release
Prior to the release of the album, the tracks "I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor", "Fake Tales of San Francisco", "Dancing Shoes", "Still Take You Home", "Riot Van" , "Mardy Bum", "When the Sun Goes Down" (then known as "Scummy" or "Scummy Man") and "A Certain Romance" had been released for free via the internet in late 2004 and consolidated on the unofficial Beneath the Boardwalk compilation.The original release date was 30 January 2006, but was brought forward to 23 January 2006 due to "high demand". Although the same was done with Franz Ferdinand
Franz Ferdinand (album)
Franz Ferdinand is the debut album by Scottish indie rock band Franz Ferdinand, released in early 2004. It entered the United Kingdom album charts at number three in February 2004 and contains three UK top ten singles: "Take Me Out", "This Fire" and "The Dark of the Matinée"...
, it was speculated that the move was an attempt to counter the effects of the album's leak onto online file-sharing
Peer-to-peer
Peer-to-peer computing or networking is a distributed application architecture that partitions tasks or workloads among peers. Peers are equally privileged, equipotent participants in the application...
sites. The re-recorded album versions had been leaked onto the internet by December 2005.
On the first day of its release, the album became the fastest-selling debut album in British history, selling just under 120,000 copies. By the end of the week, the album had sold 363,735 copies - more than the rest of the Top 20 combined and making it the overall fastest selling debut album in British history.
Its release in the United States on 21 February 2006 saw it become the second fastest selling debut indie album in history, turning over around 34,000 copies in its first week and achieving #24 in the album charts. The album also went to #1 in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
and Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
.
The track "Mardy Bum", while not released as a single, appeared on radio playlists throughout the UK in mid-2006, and is still played infrequently on BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation which also broadcasts internationally, specialising in current popular music and chart hits throughout the day. Radio 1 provides alternative genres after 7:00pm including electronic dance, hip hop, rock...
and some alternative rock stations such as Sirius XM's Sirius XMU. The track "A Certain Romance" was ranked #90 in Pitchfork Media
Pitchfork Media
Pitchfork Media, usually known simply as Pitchfork or P4k, is a Chicago-based daily Internet publication established in 1995 that is devoted to music criticism and commentary, music news, and artist interviews. Its focus is on underground and independent music, especially indie rock...
's Top 100 Tracks of 2006 and cited as the standout track. NME also placed "A Certain Romance" at 10 in their list of 100 Tracks of the Decade. In October 2011, NME
NME
The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...
placed it at number 140 on its list "150 Best Tracks of the Past 15 Years".
Name
The album's name was taken from a line from the novel Saturday Night and Sunday MorningSaturday Night and Sunday Morning (film)
Saturday Night and Sunday Morning is a 1960 British film. It is an adaptation of the 1958 novel of the same name by Alan Sillitoe. Sillitoe wrote the screenplay adaptation and the film was directed by Karel Reisz.-Synopsis:...
written by Alan Sillitoe
Alan Sillitoe
Alan Sillitoe was an English writer and one of the "Angry Young Men" of the 1950s.. He disliked the label, as did most of the other writers to whom it was applied.- Biography :...
. The name was chosen after Turner recognised similarities between the two works and the appropriateness of the title. He said that "it’s good because the book is called Saturday Night And Sunday Morning and that’s kind of what the album is, so there’s a link there. And also, there’s a lot of people saying a lot of things about us and you don’t have control over it." He also said that "songs including 'The View from the Afternoon', 'Dancing Shoes', 'Still Take You Home' and 'From the Ritz to the Rubble' all cover that bit of the weekend and feature the same character."
Artwork
Cover artCover art
Cover art is the illustration or photograph on the outside of a published product such as a book , magazine, comic book, video game , DVD, CD, videotape, or music album. The art has a primarily commercial function, i.e...
work of the album is a photo of Chris McClure — a friend of the band, frontman of The Violet May
The Violet May
The Violet May are a 5-piece rock act rooted in Sheffield, UK, but their sound is influenced by a much broader spectrum. Formed in early 2009, the band earned an early reputation for a raukus live show and were named by Alan McGee in The Guardians “Top 15 Tips for 2010”.The 5-piece went on to...
and brother of Jon McClure
Jon McClure
Jon McClure, known as the Reverend, is lead singer and frontman of Reverend and The Makers and ex-vocalist of 1984 and Judan Suki. He claims that the name "Reverend" became his moniker because "I'm a big mouth and always running on at people"....
of Reverend and the Makers
Reverend and The Makers
Reverend and The Makers are an indie pop band based in Sheffield, England and signed to Wall of Sound. The band is fronted by Jon McClure, nicknamed "The Reverend"...
— taken in the early hours of the morning in Korova
Korova (Liverpool)
Korova is a bar, music venue and restaurant located on Hope Street, Liverpool, England. Before moving to its current premises, it was located on Fleet Street close to Concert Square...
bar, Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
after the band had given him, his cousin and his best friend "seventy quid
Pound sterling
The pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence...
to spend on a night out". The image caused some controversy when the head of Scotland's NHS
National Health Service
The National Health Service is the shared name of three of the four publicly funded healthcare systems in the United Kingdom. They provide a comprehensive range of health services, the vast majority of which are free at the point of use to residents of the United Kingdom...
criticised the cover for "reinforcing the idea that smoking is okay". The band's product manager denied the accusation, and in fact suggested the opposite: "You can see from the image smoking is not doing him the world of good." In March 2006, McClure announced that he would be giving up smoking, due to lack of funds, though it has been recently reported that his attempts to do so have failed. Billboard
Billboard
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
advertisements for the album used a similar image to the cover picture, but without the cigarette.
Reception
The album since its release has received universal acclaim with a MetacriticMetacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
rating of 82 and featuring highly in many year-end lists and being hailed as a modern classic. Many critics and figures in the British Media hyped the Arctic Monkeys and their rapid rise to acclaim through unconventional means and some even cited the Arctic Monkeys as revolutionising the way people find music as they built a fanbase on the basis of a few demos shared by fans through the internet. NME declared them "Our Generation's Most Important Band" and Alex Turner's lyrics and depiction of Sheffield and the night lives of teenagers in particular praised with him being labelled as a "master of observation" and USA Today
USA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
claiming "you probably won't hear better CD all year long" and calling it "utterly infectious". MusicOMH
MusicOMH
musicOMH is a United Kingdom-based website which publishes independent reviews, featues and interviews from across all musical genres including classical, metal, rock and R&B.-History:...
wrote that it was the sort of guitar rock that "makes you fall in love with music all over again" and along with many other critics cited "A Certain Romance" as the standout track and as being "a wonderfully articulate dissection of youth culture that belies Turner's tender years". It was however, noted that some of the tracks which had previously been released on the internet as demos had lost some of their quality and "don't sound as good".
Awards
- 5th greatest British album – NMENMEThe New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...
, January 2006 - Best Album – Q AwardsQ (magazine)Q is a popular music magazine published monthly in the United Kingdom.Founders Mark Ellen and David Hepworth were dismayed by the music press of the time, which they felt was ignoring a generation of older music buyers who were buying CDs — then still a new technology...
, October 2006 - Album of the Year – NMENMEThe New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...
- Album of the Year – Crossbeat Magazine (Japan), December 2006
- Album of the Year – Time MagazineTime (magazine)Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
, www.time.com/time/topten/2006/albums/01.html December 2006 - Album of the Year – Hot Press Magazine (Ireland), December 2006
- Best International Album – Meteor Music AwardsMeteor Music AwardsThe Meteor Ireland Music Awards are a group of music awards in Ireland...
(Ireland), February 2007 - Best British Album – 2007 BRIT Awards2007 BRIT AwardsThe 2007 BRIT Awards was the 27th edition of the biggest annual pop music awards in the United Kingdom. They are run by the British Phonographic Industry and took place on 14 February 2007 at the Earls Court Exhibition Centre in London...
, February 2007 - Best British Group – 2007 BRIT Awards, February 2007
In 2009 the album was voted the 9th greatest album ever by MTV from an online poll voted for by fans.
http://www.mtv.co.uk/entertainment/greatest-album-ever/competition/mtvs-greatest-album-ever
Singles
- "I Bet You Look Good on the DancefloorI Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor-Charts:-External links:* Mapped on Platial....
" (17 October 2005, Domino Records) #1 (UK) - "When the Sun Goes Down" (16 January 2006, Domino Records) #1 (UK)
Track listing
Personnel
- Alex TurnerAlex Turner (musician)Alexander David Turner is an English musician, best known as the lead vocalist, guitarist and main songwriter of the English rock band Arctic Monkeys...
– lead vocals, guitar - Jamie CookJamie CookJamie Robert Cook is the lead guitarist for the British indie rock band Arctic Monkeys.He is the most outspoken member, going on record as saying he "fucking hates the [print] news" and defending the band's numerous successive records by saying, "I couldn’t see us being like Coldplay, it’d just be...
– guitar - Andy Nicholson – bass
- Matt HeldersMatt HeldersMatthew Helders , is the drummer for English indie rock band Arctic Monkeys. He is the most comprehensive backing vocalist in the group, appearing on several tracks, including the majority of 'Humbug'...
– drums, backing vocals
Charts
| Charts (2006) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| UK Albums Chart UK Albums Chart The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart... |
1 |
| Australian ARIA Albums Chart ARIA Charts The ARIA charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling singles and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA commenced compiling its own charts in-house from the week ending 26 June... |
1 |
| Austrian Albums Chart | 23 |
| Belgium Albums Chart | 9 |
| Canadian Albums Chart Canadian Albums Chart The Canadian Albums Chart is the official album sales chart in Canada. It is compiled every Wednesday by U.S.-based music sales tracking company Nielsen Soundscan, and published every Thursday by Jam! Canoe and Billboard, along with its sister charts the Canadian Singles Chart and the Canadian BDS... |
46 |
| Danish Albums Chart Tracklisten Tracklisten is a Danish top 40 record chart that is presented every Thursday midnight at .The weekly Danish Singles Chart also known as Track Top-40 combines the 40 best selling tracks from legal music downloads and the sales of music singles on either CD or vinyl... |
6 |
| Finnish Albums Chart | 8 |
| German Albums Chart Media Control Charts The official music charts in Germany are gathered and published by the company Media Control GfK International on behalf of Bundesverband Musikindustrie... |
20 |
| Irish Albums Chart Irish Albums Chart The Irish Albums Chart is the Irish music industry standard albums popularity chart issued weekly by the Irish Recorded Music Association and compiled on its behalf by Chart-Track. Chart rankings are based on sales, which are compiled through over-the-counter retail data captured electronically... |
1 |
| New Zealand Albums Chart Recording Industry Association of New Zealand The Recording Industry Association of New Zealand is a non-profit trade association of record producers, distributors and recording artists who sell music in New Zealand... |
15 |
| French Albums Chart Syndicat National de l'Edition Phonographique The Syndicat national de l'édition phonographique is the inter-professional organization which protects the interests of the French record industry... |
17 |
| Japan Album Chart Oricon , established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics and information on music and the music industry in Japan. It started as , which was founded by Sōkō Koike in November 1967 and became known for its music charts. Oricon Inc... |
9 |
| Netherlands Album Chart | 8 |
| Swiss Albums Chart Swiss Music Charts The Swiss Music Charts are Switzerland's main music sales charts. The charts are a record of the highest-selling singles and albums in various genres in Switzerland.The Swiss Charts include:* Singles Top 75... |
15 |
| Swedish Albums Chart Sverigetopplistan Sverigetopplistan, earlier known as Topplistan and Hitlistan and other names, is since October 2007 the Swedish national record chart, based on sales data from Swedish Recording Industry Association .... |
26 |
| Italian Albums Chart | 40 |
| US Billboard 200 Billboard 200 The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists... |
24 |
Sales
- UK – 1,200,000+ – 4x PlatinumMusic recording sales certificationMusic recording sales certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped or sold a certain number of copies, where the threshold quantity varies by type and by nation or territory .Almost all countries follow variations of the RIAA certification categories,...
- USA – 305,000
- Japan – 103,734 GoldMusic recording sales certificationMusic recording sales certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped or sold a certain number of copies, where the threshold quantity varies by type and by nation or territory .Almost all countries follow variations of the RIAA certification categories,...
- Argentina – 100,000 Platinum
- Australia – 70,000 Platinum
- Canada – 50,000 Gold
- France – 49,000
- Denmark – 20,000 Gold
- New Zealand – 7,500 Gold
- Worldwide – 2,310,000