Arctic Monkeys - Suck It And See

After having their opium freak-out a couple years ago with Josh Homme on Humbug, the Sheffield speed freaks are back with a new one just in time for the summer festival circuit. It has opening track which feels like a hug opening number from an outdoor live set. "She's Thunderstorms" also speaks of that hugely influential impenetrable girl. And with a line like, "She does what the night does to the day"; it's going to be favorite among the panty droppers in the crowd.

And after a lazily executed "Black Treacle"; comes a slipshod frat-guy bullshit song called "Brick By Brick". It couldn't be any more obvious if they had just covered, "I Wanna Be Your Dog". "I wanna steal your soul / I wanna rock and roll / I wanna feel your love". It's unbecoming of the otherwise outer-worldy wordsmithing of Alex Turner. Fuck that shit. The next track doesn't help. "The Hellcat Spangled Shalalala" is just a fangled-fancy way of titling your song out of your insipid "Shalalala" chorus. That's all it fucking is.

A saving grace is the first proper single, "Don't Sit Down 'Cause I've Moved Your Chair". A straight-up desert-groove homage to their prior producer, Josh Homme. And say what you will about the Beck-like non-sensicalisms of "Library Pictures"; but it fucking rocks.

We move on through a couple more mid-tempo songs which are fine, if unremarkable, like the awesomely-titled title track. It's decent pop, but not great AM. But we are brought to a standout romantic ballad. Surprisingly not as pandering as the rockers on the album; "Love is a Laserquest" holds up with other sentimental Monkey favorites like "Cornerstone" and "Only Ones Who Know".

It's not the psychedelic tones replacing the pub-rock that has me irked. God knows, I love Queens. But the sentimental slow stuff used to augment the snotty rockers. And we don't get any of that attitude here. Don't get me wrong, the great tunes on here are GREAT. But there's far too many cross-over appealing tracks to be able to pump my anti-Coldplay fist with Alex et. al.

I sucked it and saw. It's a C. (3 of 5 stars)