The hype surrounding this album over the past year or two has kept the music industry so firmly on the tips of their toes that now they can’t help but prance around with the elegance of a ballerina. The Last Shadow Puppets have flickered in and out of the musical eye causing drama left, right and a centre; Miles Kane has been spotted with Alex Turner coming out of a recording studio somewhere and the world goes weak at the knees. In the eight years between 2008’s The Age Of The Understatement and 2016’s Everything You’ve Come To Expect, Arctic Monkeys have well and truly cemented themselves as the biggest band not just in the UK but arguably in the world having just now cracked America. Miles Kane has climbed the rungs as a solo musician having left The Rascals a while ago and now with two albums under his belt, he is beginning to prove his worth away from the looming shadow that Turner can undoubtedly cast.
The issue with The Last Shadow Puppets in the run up to this release was firstly, the monumental amount of hype that surrounded it – how could any musician ever provide to that level of expectation? Secondly, fears surrounding the style over substance. Two gentlemen, hell-bent on this quasi-rockstar image of yesteryear, wide open neck shirts, obscure American-cum-Yorkshire/Merseyside accents, tinted sunglasses, Elvis-style hair dos; was it to be more a presentation of a rockstar than the method in the music? It’s a hard pedestal to balance on, when the world expects, was it to be everything we’d come to expect? A confident LP title suggesting it was worth the weight – ultimately this confidence has the power to break them too. As the string sections of ‘Aviation’ set in though, you get the sense that these chaps, regardless of their musical moral compasses can still write a sound set of songs.
Exploding with ringing riffs that dance within minor keys, precariously bouncing upon drums, Kane’s cool croon utters: “Hot procession / Gloomy Conga of glum looking beauties.” The imagery reflects that which is seen in the video, the procession to the beach-side graveyard that Turner and Kane seem to be digging for themselves. The song is restless from the start in a similar way to ‘Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da’, it never slows, it never quickens, it just moves with the purpose of a serpent. The real stand-out parts of the song are with the development in the string sections. The Age Of The Understatement saw Kane and Turner experiment more with sounds away from their respective other projects however, ‘Aviation’ evidences the real boys-to-men situation. These are two men, confident in what they want to produce and Owen Pallett’s work with the strings outlines this determination, tension and release is built like never before, all the while leaving the delicacy of the guitar ringing below.
‘Miracle Aligner’ is a true high-point of the album, not too dissimilar from the material that may be found on AM, it certainly falls closer to the Arctic Monkeys tree than they may have wanted. It adds to the film-soundtrack feel of the album, as if ‘Aviation’ was the rolling credits, this is the build up within the set. It is a track that borrows from the likes of The Doors with Turner’s baritones during the verse warning of the promiscuity of the male form: “Often the humble kind but he can’t deny he was born to blow your mind / Or something along those lines”. Bass is provided by Mini Mansions’ Zachary Dawes and this is testament to the fact that him and Turner are building quite the relationship now. Dawes’ role within ‘Miracle Aligner’ is prominent as it drives the song, largely in a solo fashion during the verse bringing about comparisons between this and last year’s The Great Pretenders.
From here we tumble into ‘Dracula Teeth’ via the melancholic collapse in Pallett’s string sections, a song that is a throwback to Bowie’s Berlin years, the offset breaks in rhythm point the song quite literally within a horror genre. The darker side of The Last Shadow Puppets’ sophomore effort is brought about here with murky guitar riffs contrasted with the jarring pitch of Pallett’s string sections, all the while the full moon spooks are poured upon: “I wake up in an ice cold sweat and my skin starts to creep / You’re hovering above my bed looking down on me.”
In an interview with SPIN recently, Turner stated that the lyrics were of less importance on this record in comparison to the heartbreak, love-torn debut released eight years back. Whether this is because of a de-sensitised look at emotions due to growing older, it has meant the collective have fallen into a more playful bracket. For better or for worse, these are to be taken with the tongue firmly in cheek and nowhere is this better evidenced than within the Alice In Wonderland-esque, psychedelia laden title track, ‘Everything You’ve Come To Expect’. A song that borrows heavily from The Beatles circa-‘Strawberry Fields’ and Magical Mystery Tour in general with its four count chime at the start and off-beat funfair organ stab. It is done tastefully, utilising the balance of a hooking chorus to even it out into a song that is not complete nonsense, all the while Turner’s lyrical soup mutters:
‘Ghost Riders in The Rat and Parrot
Croc-skin collar on a Diamond Dog
Dirtbag Ballet by the bins down the alley as I walk’
It is the most dream-like, drug infused song on the album and would suitably seem fitting within Kevin Parker’s realm, or even the lethargic times of The Velvet Underground. ‘The Element Of Surprise’ triggers you out of this sleep with its Television-style guitar and cutting drum patterns. It sees a return to lyrics that strike a chord with any single male on the hunt for romance as Turner so eloquently bemoans: “I thought they were kisses but apparently not, do you end all your messages with an ‘X marks the spot’?” Once again, proving Turner really can be a wordsmith for the generation of technology obsessed millennials who are still feeling left out on love via emoticons and symbols of misguided affection. Everyone has misread a kiss before, surely?
Back in January, ‘Bad Habits’ was the first taste of EYCTE with its abrasive, confident swagger and you can see why it was the first, it was a band who were keen to make their return a stamp and a mark not to be forgotten. Its eruptive and unnerving string sections execute the thrust of a chase scene, with Kane’s squalls and yells of “Bad habits / Sick puppy.” As a song it’s different and fun but the lyrics and yells lie in tangent with the quasi-rockstar, narcissistic image they present in physical appearance. Its confidence is admirable but it comes across slightly arrogant and obnoxious, from the irrelevancy of the “yeahs” and the “oohs” to the downright pretence of the unnecessary guitar solo. It doesn’t fall in tangent with the rest of the album and is likely to be one that is forgotten amongst the true songwriting in the rest. ‘Sweet Dreams, TN’ demonstrates this ability with the solo vocal introduction brought in with Turner’s “I just sort of always feel sick without you baby.” We begin to see the delicacy behind the confident heart that he gas grown in recent years. It’s a spin back to the likes of Humbug in terms of the enormity of the sound, it has a slight head bounce to it, all the while Tuner’s vocals soar over the top. Whatever happened in Tennessee brought out the best in the man.
Kane’s neo-psychedelia ring comes in within ‘Used To Be My Girl’, musically it dances not too far from the likes of The Coral and The Black Angels, uncanny strings peal in the background behind a commanding, tribal drum pattern. Guitars reverberate and shimmy between instruments clouded in fuzz and delay, the song references snakes and moves just as swiftly. ‘She Does The Woods’ takes from the the hazy days of ‘Everything You’ve Come To Expect’ and tips you once more into an LSD fuelled cauldron with its stabbing string rhythm and dark united vocals uttering the title during the chorus. Big scuzzed guitar licks loom throughout, hiding behind every corner within the song and have complete control of the volume. If she does not do the woods, she’s certainly guiding you through them then ditching you in the middle, leaving you with no way out. It’s a dark, mystified side of The Last Shadow Puppets, littered with a maze of crescendos and beginnings.
As the album hits the tail end, we fall at the feet of ‘Pattern’, by no means a standout track but a touching affair that takes slightly from the R’n’B theme that littered AM, it takes a sharp funk groove and keeps the melody running. Ultimately though, the album reaches its peak and true crescendo on the closer, ‘The Dream Synopsis’, three minutes of love and lust harked in a Richard Hawley-esque manner. It follows a pattern similar to The Stones’ ‘Wild Horses’, it’s slow and feels genuinely wrapped in romance. It’s smothered in delicacy and intimacy, a real fireplace song as it progresses, Turner tells us through his dream scenario, referencing towards his heritage with Sheffield City Centre and fraternal friendship with Miles Kane. As the song reaches its climax, the lust of Kane’s guitar work comes into play and bows out the duo’s second effort.
Will it be this long to wait for LP number three? Perhaps, but this is why this effort is so important. It almost feels as if they were testing themselves, the world had waited for this and they wanted to double check they could do it and what’s more, put the pressure on themselves with such a confident LP title. It is a fine return to form and you get the sense that if this was the end of The Last Shadow Puppets, it would have lived its rightful time. Some projects don’t necessarily carry longevity but within their brief instances, they bring promise and substance. The touching relationship between these two is important but just as much is their respective other musical projects. The charm of The Last Shadow Puppets is that they are enigmatic, they are a rarity and that it is exactly that – a solid side project. Fortunately, this is everything we’ve come to expect, and perhaps, a little bit more.
Tom Churchill
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