The Arctic Monkeys’ song inspired by Timbaland
When Arctic Monkeys released their debut album, Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not, there wasn’t a person in the country who wasn’t obsessing over it. Don’t believe the hype? All people did was believe the hype, and rightly so. It offered a new sound that spoke about everyday life in a way that had never been done before. They went to number one with the record and even won a Mercury Award.
After the release of the first album, the band had a lot of work to do to meet the high expectations of fans, but they managed it. The likes of Favourite Worst Nightmare, Humbug, and Suck It And See were well received by fans; however, none of them quite hit the mark as much as 2013’s modern classic AM.
AM brought with it the regular lyricism that Arctic Monkeys were famous for but a style, both musically and aesthetically, that hadn’t yet been explored by the group. It was fascinating, sexy and sleek, making it so that AM is now considered many people’s favourite Arctic Monkeys album, even more than their debut.
Arctic Monkeys drew inspiration from several places to achieve the unique sound they managed to get on AM. On the opening track for the album (and fan favourite) ‘Do I Wanna Know?’, the outfit confirmed that they found inspiration from not only the apparent rock influence present but also rap and producer extraordinaire Timbaland.
“We had this idea for a record where you take the compositional perspective of an R&B producer and apply that to a four-piece rock ‘n’ roll band,” said Turner, talking about the track. “Manipulating our instruments to make building blocks for the song in a way I’d imagine Timbaland or someone constructs music. That’s one way of looking at it. The other way is we just made it up! I had this tune in my head, you know what I mean?”
That kind of R&B style is present throughout the album. Even though there are heavier influences at play, like the ‘War Pigs’-like riff in ‘Arabella’, the music’s overall theme has a swagger reminiscent of R&B. This is a massive factor towards its success.
Given the riffs are fun and the lyrics are accessible, the music is not too far away from what fans were used to. However, this innovative attitude towards production gave fans a style they didn’t expect. It’s all executed incredibly well, so the song (and the project as a whole) has always been destined for greatness. Even now, with two more albums released, AM is held up as the high bar the band has set themselves.
