Album Of The Month - April: The Last Shadow Puppets - The Age Of The Understatement

Easily the most anticipated album of the month, The Last Shadow Puppets' The Age Of The Understatement. I'm still not sure about this album. On first listen, I was disappointed, nothing of note stood out and the band's debut single, the title track, was easily my favourite track. However, I persevered with it, and after another few listens I started to really get into it, however, I think I may have listened once to many times and I'm now bored of it.

It's not that it's a bad album in the slightest. The lyrics are of the quality you'd expect to get when to set Mr Turner to work, and the tracks where Miles has clearly taken the reigns are also far better than expected. The music itself is good as well, there are some great little guitar riffs (not surprisingly reminiscent of the kind found on Favourite Worst Nightmare) and the strings arranged by Owen Pallett of Final Fantasy add an entirely new level to the album. They have the ability to raise a track that starts out slightly dull to an epic ending, as Standing Next To Me demonstrates.

There problem with the album is that it feels like there has been far more effort into making it sound epic than writing a quality album with what they have. It's good to hear people having a crack at something a bit different, and where it has worked, it yields stunning results. Sometimes, they have either pushed it a bit far (see The Chamber) or not pushed it anywhere near enough (see closing track The Time Has Come Again).

I do like it, but it's far from brilliant and rather than applauding the clever, insightful lyrics from the two front men, it is Owen that the praise should be heaped on, as without the strings this record would be nothing (granted, the whole point of the record is a huge sounding album with strings). The arrangement is perfect. Epic and almost overwhelming when it needs to be, but equally adept at fading perfectly into the background.

So, while it is very enjoyable and interesting in places, its just as dull in others. Overall, I hope Alex sticks with the Arctics to be perfectly honest.