Arctic Monkeys - Favourite Worst Nightmare CD

Favourite Worst Nightmare buy CD music It doesn't take much listening to Amy Winehouse's 1960s pop period piece to realize that this is a tribute with an edge--nice girls back then didn't sing about boozing and rehab. Since her 2003 debut album, FRANK, Winehouse has been a frequent presence on the gossip pages of the U.K. tabloids, and her songwriting here candidly reflects her experiences with drinking, sex, and drugs. BACK TO BLACK's production is an artful blend of sophisticated '60s R&B and 21st-century stylistic poaching, with "Tears Dry on Their Own" incorporating elements of Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell's "Ain't No Mountain High Enough," and Winehouse sounding like Billie Holiday fronting a reggae band on the old-fashioned cheating song "Just Friends." Densely packed with musical history and often conjuring a dark, Portishead-esque atmosphere, BACK TO BLACK is a sumptuous-sounding collection freighted with blunt confessionals of a lush life. Recording information: Allido Studios; Chung King Studios; Daptone Studios; Instrument Zoo, Miami, FL; metropolis Studios, London, England; Rapking Studios. Photographer: Harry "Rockbarry" Benson. Arrangers: Mark Ronson; Gabriel Roth. Personnel: Amy Winehouse (guitar, background vocals); Vincent Henry (guitar, flute, clarinet, bass clarinet, saxophone, alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, baritone saxophone, piano, celesta); Salaam Remi (guitar, piano, upright bass, bass guitar, drums); Binky Griptite, Thomas Brenneck (guitar); Steve Sidwell (harp, trumpet); Helen Tunstall (harp); Perry Mason, Chris Tombling, Pigott Smith, Tom, Warren Zielinski, Liz Edwards, Mark Berrow, Peter Hanson , Peter G. Hanson, Boguslaw Kostecki, Everton Nelson, Johnathan Rees (violin); Jon Thorne, Kate Wilkinson, Rachel Bolt, Bruce White (viola); John Heley, Joely Koos, Anthony Pleeth (cello); Andrew MacKintosh, Chris Davies (alto saxophone); Jamie Talbot, Mike Smith , Neal Sugarman (tenor saxophone); Ian Hendrickson-Smith, Cochemea Gastelum, Dave Bishop (baritone saxophone); Bruce Purse (trumpet, bass trumpet, flugelhorn); Dave Guy (trumpet); Richard Edwards (tenor trombone); Victor Axelrod (piano, Wurlitzer organ, hand claps); John Adams (Fender Rhodes piano); Nick Movshon (bass guitar); Troy Auxilly-Wilson, Homer Steinweiss (drums); Mark Ronson (tambourine, hand claps); Vaughan Merrick (hand claps); Sam Koppelman, Frank Ricotti (percussion). Audio Mixer: Tom Elmhirst.

Favourite Worst Nightmare CD music This Montreal ensemble's fiery debut is marked by surging guitars, soulful strings, driving drums, brilliant bass lines, and the quavering vocals of married couple Win Butler and Regine Chassagne. The group's song structures careen through a vast territory of musical and personal history, with lyrics warm with memories of childhood neighborhoods and deceased loved ones, resulting in an alternating current of joy and sadness. Favorably compared to the Flaming Lips, Mercury Rev, and Broken Social Scene, the Arcade Fire's sound seems to come from a lifetime of listening to the Cure, Talking Heads, Elvis Costello, and many others--even a dose of soul gets worked into these grand anthems. Chassagne delivers some spellbinding vocals on "Haiti," while the tinkling piano and strings on "Crown of Love" conjure up a heartbroken surfside prom. In 2004, this made many critics' year-end lists, and it's no wonder--the songs on FUNERAL are so packed with unique instrumentation, mesmerizing build-ups, and galvanizing tempo changes that they seem culled from some enigmatic, decade-spanning rock anthology. Recording information: Hotel 2 Tango (08/2003-??/2004); Win & Regine's Apartment, Montreal, Canada (08/2003-??/2004). Photographer: Hilary Treadwell. Arcade Fire: Will Butler (bass instrument); Richard Reed Parry (double bass); Win Butler (bass guitar); Régine Chassagne, Howard Bilerman. Personnel: Win Butler (vocals, acoustic guitar, electric 12-string guitar, piano, synthesizer); Régine Chassagne (vocals, accordion, recorder, piano, synthesizer, xylophone, drums, percussion); Howard Bilerman (guitar, drums); Timothy Kingsbury (acoustic guitar); Anita Fust (harp); Jessica Moss, Sophie Trudeau, Owen Pallett, Sarah Neufeld (violin); Genevieve Heistek (viola); Michael Olsen, Mike Olsen (cello); Richard Reed Parry (accordion, piano, organ, synthesizer, xylophone, upright bass, percussion); Pietro Amato (horns); Will Butler (synthesizer, xylophone, percussion); Arlen Thompson (drums).

Favourite Worst Nightmare songs Reportedly the fastest-selling debut in British history at the time of its early-2006 release, the Arctic Monkeys' WHATEVER PEOPLE SAY I AM, THAT'S WHAT I'M NOT is a brash, hook-filled album that immediately warrants music fans' attention, if perhaps not all of the pre-release hype. Clearly taking notes on the evolution of U.K. punk, the Sheffield-based band reveal the influence of revered predecessors such as the Jam and the Clash, while most notably evoking the Libertines in their youthful, hood-rat persona. On this hyperactive 13-track set, singer/guitarist Alex Turner is armed with an arsenal of sharply observed middle-class narratives (a la the Streets), which are propelled by wiry guitar lines and formidable rhythms that, at times, verge on funk (see Bloc Party). Highlights of this much-lauded disc include the raucous "I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor," the woozy "Riot Van" (one of the record's few quieter moments), and the lurching "When the Sun Goes Down." Like Franz Ferdinand's scruffier (and considerably less effete) kid brothers, the Arctic Monkeys prove that the hyperbole of the U.K. music press occasionally has roots in an impressive reality. Recording information: 2 Fly Studio, Sheffield, England; Telstar Studios, Munich, Germany; The Chapel Studio, Lincolnshire, England. Photographers: Andy Brown ; Alexandra Wolkowicz. Arctic Monkeys: Alex Turner (vocals, guitar); Jamie Cook (guitar); Andy Nicholson (bass guitar); Matt Helders (drums). Audio Mixer: Jim Abbiss.

Favourite Worst Nightmare album for sale There's an overwhelming sense of urgency and catharsis on most tracks, as on the title cut, where Jack's Robert Plant-ish wail falls into a near-rap full of breathless cadences. That dirty, primal groove evoked by said title is the organizing principle of the album, sweaty blues-rock writ large and gritty. Even though there are a couple of brief stylistic diversions when the Whites veer into folkier territory, there's no mistaking ICKY THUMP's status as a thick slab of heavy rock capable of handily crushing lesser sonic statements. Following the arty explorations of its predecessor, GET BEHIND ME SATAN, ICKY THUMP finds everybody's favorite platinum-selling, post-modern garage-rock duo returning to their bang-and-stomp rock-&-roll roots. The marimbas and pianos of the former are kicked to the curb in favor of the kind of Led Zeppelin-in-a-trash-can riffs on which Jack and Meg White built their cooler-than-ice reputation. The White Stripes: Jack White , Meg White .

Favourite Worst Nightmare CD music Almost three years after the Arcade Fire's 2004 full-length debut, FUNERAL, stunned indie-rock fans with its majestic scope and romantic ferocity, the Montreal-based ensemble returned with NEON BIBLE. Although the album lacks the from-out-of-nowhere punch of the former record, it serves as a fitting successor, with the group's sweeping sound enhanced by even more prominent layers of piano, organ, strings, and percussion. As on FUNERAL, married multi-instrumentalists Win Butler and Regine Chassagne share vocal duties, and their distinctive singing adds to the emotional weight of each song, from the urgent, bass-heavy "Keep the Car Running" to the brooding, cinematic "Black Waves/Bad Vibrations." And while the Arcade Fire's post-punk influences are still on display, they are more fully integrated into the band's ambitious aesthetic, as best evidenced on the lush, nearly operatic update of "No Cars Go," which originally appeared on its '03 EP. With its cathedral-like grandeur kept in check by the group's restless energy, NEON BIBLE features both slowly revealed charms and immediate thrills, easily making it one of the most impressive albums of early '07. Recording information: Budapest, Hungary (2006); Eglise St. Baptiste, Montreal, Canada (2006); Hungarian National Radio Studios, Budapest, Hungary (2006); New York, NY (2006); St. James Anglican Church, Bedford, Quebec, Canada (2006); The Church, Quebec, Canada (2006). Director: Tracy Maurice. Editor: Michael Pärt. Photographer: Christophe Collette. Personnel: Chantel Gero, Joanne Degand, Shauna Callender, Tasha Gero (vocals); Liza Rey (harp); Owen Pallett (violin, strings); Markia Anthony Shaw (viola, strings); Mélanie Auclair (cello, strings); Laurent Ménard, Geoffrey Shoesmith, Jake Henry, Andreas Stolzfus, Margaret Gundara, Edith Gruber, Colin Stetson, Martin Wenk, Jacob Valenzuela, Pietro Amato (brass). Audio Mixers: Markus Dravs; Mark "Spike" Stent; Nick Launay.

Favourite Worst Nightmare buy CD music Facing the third album blues, the Arctic Monkeys turned to Josh Homme, the Queens of the Stone Age mastermind renowned for his collaborations but heretofore untested as a producer. On first glance, it's a peculiar pair--the heirs of Paul Weller meet the heavy desert mystic--but this isn't a team of equals, it's a big brother helping his little siblings go wayward and get weird. Homme doesn't imprint his own views on the Monkeys but encourages them to follow their strange instincts. Wading into the murk of HUMBUG it becomes clear that the common ground between the Monkeys and Homme is the actual act of making music, the pleasure of not knowing what comes next when an entire band is drifting inside a zone. Since so much of HUMBUG is about its process, it's not always immediately accessible or pleasurable to an outside listener, nor is it quite the thickly colored freakout Homme's presence suggests. The Monkeys still favor angular riffs and clenched rhythms, constructing tightly framed vignettes not widescreen epics, but they're working with a darker palette and creating vaguely abstract compositions, sensibilities that extend to Alex Turner's words too, as he trades keen detail for vivid scrawled impressions. Every element of the album reflects a band testing its limits, seeing where they could go next. Recording information: Mission Sound, Brooklyn, NY; Pink Duck Studios; Rancho de La Luna. Photographers: Mark Bull; Justin Smith ; Chapman Baehler; Guy Aroch. Personnel: Alison Mosshart (vocals); John Ashton (keyboards, background vocals). Audio Mixer: Rich Costey.