They're a tricky lot to review. They're the biggest band to come out of Sheffield since Pulp came swaggering from the South Yorkshire hills. You don't want to add to the tsunami of hype that would threaten to drown lesser talented bands, but when songs like this are released, it's difficult to curb your enthusiasm.
When The Sun Goes Down starts off all quiet and hushed with Alex Turner's deadpan vocals introducing the sad, seedy tale of a prostitute and her pimp. Then, it suddenly cranks up into a gloriously stomping chorus and doesn't let up until right at the end, when it returns to being quiet and hushed. Lyrically, it's superb - Turner sketches out characters so well that you imagine them in your mind's eye as the song plays out. He also effortlessly tosses out a line like "you can see it in his eyes that he's got a driving ban, amongst some other offences" which will no doubt be one of the lyrics of the year.
Even better than I Bet You Good On The Dancefloor in other words - no doubt there will be some people a bit sniffy purely because of the amount of column inches they've already generated in their short career. However, it should be celebrated that this country can still produce bands this talented, this exciting and this damn vital. Everyone knows 2006 is going to be Arctic Monkeys' year, so sit back and enjoy the ride.
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