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Arctic Monkeys

When The Sun Goes Down

Label: Domino Records Release Date: 16/01/2006

12172
crablin by Colin Roberts January 16th, 2006

a) Frenetic, danceable indie-rock fun.

b) Whatever.

c) A heap of over-hyped everything-on-Domino-is-ace shite.

d) All/none of the above.

Whichever you pick and whatever you want to lay upon the Arctic Monkeys and this, their second single proper from next week's debut LP Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not, it's generally accepted that you've at least heard of them; for large portions of both the indie elite and the record-buying masses, it's time to step out of the '...Dancefloor' bubble and ensure that we're going to want to spend more than five minutes with the Arctic Monkeys.

Lyricially a tale of a prostitute and her pimp, 'When The Sun Goes Down' opens gently; the first time we've been subjected to a downbeat portion of the Arctics' catalogue and it's certainly not without its charms. To be honest though, this isn't what gets The Kids going; it's the effortless wheeling out of massive indie anthems that makes this band so appealing, so when a juxtapositionally loud guitar cracks open the slow movements of the intro, we're back on track.

I'm certain that if I were 15, I'd be skipping school to stay at home and dance in the mirror to the refrain of this song - even now I find it hard to keep still. In the same way that Mystery Jets induce the most ridiculous smile across my face, the Monkeys' obvious, yet vital, sound of 'now' is only to be ignored by the too-cool-for-art-school crowd, obsessed with the records that make them look great but are as boring as art school itself.

I'm going with option a) on this - whether an album can maintain this pace and fun remains to be seen, but for now I'm more than happy to don a Northern accent and nonchalant attitude towards life for every two minutes that this song enters my life.

But then what do I know? I like McFly.

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