The Last Shadow Puppets – ‘The Age Of The Understatement’
Being part of the biggest band in Britain isn’t a task for the faint-hearted. As a late teenager, Alex Turner went from an ordinary Sheffield adolescent to the poster boy of a new generation, and Arctic Monkeys were suddenly a household name. Yet, rather than succumb to mainstream pressures, Turner took a brave left-turn with The Last Shadow Puppets’ 2008 debut, The Age Of The Understatement.
The group’s debut album, Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not, broke records at every turn, and the follow-up, Favourite Worst Nightmare, turned them into Glastonbury headliners. For his next move at 22, Turner could have acted selfishly and released a singer-songwriter solo album, which would likely have become a best-seller.
Instead, the Arctic Monkeys frontman chose to form The Last Shadow Puppets with his relatively unknown friend, Miles Kane. The two had met when Kane’s former band, The Little Flames, supported Arctic Monkeys in 2005, and the pair stayed in touch. While Arctic Monkeys’ career went stratospheric, The Little Flames split, and Kane went on to form The Rascals before his old friend came calling with an idea that would become The Last Shadow Puppets.
For the project, the pair recruited James Ford as their producer and drummer after he previously worked with Arctic Monkeys on Favourite Worst Nightmare. Yet, The Age Of The Understatement isn’t cut from the same cloth as Turner’s previous two angst-filled records and expresses a new-found maturity, providing a timeless nature to the album.
The strings, courtesy of the London Metropolitan Orchestra on the titular opening track to the record, show Turner has grown from boy to man, destined to be in the limelight for a lifetime. Up until this point, cinematic was not a word anybody would associate with Turner’s artistry, but as The Age Of The Understatement proved, it was comfortably within his wheelhouse.
‘The Age Of The Understatement’ is a track befitting of a James Bond theme born in the 1960s. The album opener sets the tone for the rest of the LP with ‘Standing Next To Me’ picking up the sonic baton from where it left off as Turner has to settle for backing vocal duties as Kane delivers a sermon. While the pair of songs veer away from the typical indie sound of 2008, they both inhabit tremendous infectious choruses which would work in any era.
Canadian composer Owen Pallett isn’t listed as a member of The Last Shadow Puppets, but his impressive work defines the album’s DNA. As well as writing the compositions, Pallett also conducted the London Metropolitan Orchestra, which brought his ideas to life.
Ford’s drumming in the introduction of ‘Calm Like You’ brings menacing energy to the beginning of the track before Turner’s vocals kick in as he bitterly reflects on the halcyon days of his relationship. He petulantly sings, “Summertime made promises, It knew it couldn’t keep, The fairytale was climbing up, A mountain far too steep, Colouring the pictures, With your loyal hand, Now I am craving heartbreak, While you’re making your demands.”
Following ‘Calm Like You’, The Age Of The Understatement unlocks another gear of darkness which The Last Shadow Puppets tap into on ‘Separate and Ever Deadly’, which also deals with the impending breakdown of a relationship. Kane brings piercing aggression to the track as he irately sings, “When we walked the streets together, All the faces seemed to smile back, And now the pavements have nothing to offer, And all the faces seem to need a slap.”
After the onslaught of anger, the hauntingly quiet and thought-provoking, ‘The Chamber’, offers momentary respite as Turner battles with his own mind before conceding, “It’s torture locked inside the chamber.” Following the brief interval, the anger returns on the swirling ‘Only The Truth’, blending classical music elegantly with modern rock.
As well as featuring the perfect opening line, “About as subtle as an earthquake, I Know’, ‘My Mistakes Were Made For You’ finds Turner offering a grain of optimism within a sea of sadness, delightfully constructed by the orchestral backing. While ‘Black Plant’ isn’t the most arresting moment on the record, it sets the scene ahead of the explosively ferocious, ‘I Don’t Like You Anymore’, with Kane throwing a verbal assault upon the song’s subject, which juxtaposes exceptionally with Turner’s chillingly calm delivery.
On ‘In My Room’, the orchestration takes centre stage while Turner and Kane add an extra layer of stirring emotion to the atmospheric track. The album’s penultimate song, ‘The Meeting Place’, is the most upbeat on the record from a musical standpoint. However, the lyrics tell a significantly different story as the narrator looks back regretfully upon a relationship he wishes to erase from his memory.
After the grandiose orchestration of the entirety of The Age Of The Understatement, The Last Shadow Puppets round off the track with the acoustic, ‘Time Has Come Again’, which makes for a soberingly intimate listen as Turner waves a final goodbye to his lover.
While The Age Of The Understatement isn’t a concept album, it offers up twelve stunningly beautiful and bittersweet vignettes which combine to illustrate the dying embers of a relationship which has run its course. As an album, it was unlike anything either man had concocted before in their respective careers. Although it heavily borrowed from the past, it’s a wholly original, timeless body of work.
