My venture into Arctic Monkeys’ discography continues with their third release, Humbug!
At a first listen, this thing sounds completely different from their prior two releases, but I didn’t outright hate anything. After a couple more times through it, I can see how well Humbug fits into their catalog thus far. Like Favourite Worst Nightmare, it is more of a natural progression for them. With that being said, I noticed that Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age produced six of the ten tracks and his influence is all over the record! I’m not mad about that!
Songs that sounded like they could have been on a QOTSA record include “Dangerous Animals,” “Fire and the Thud,” “The Jeweller’s Hands,” “Potion Approaching,” and “Dance Little Liar” but in a more subdued way. I absolutely love the backing “oohs” and that guitar riff towards the end of “Dance Little Liar.” Every single thing about “Potion Approaching,” name included, sounds like it got ripped straight out of a QOTSA catalog. Especially with those backing vocals! At first I wasn’t a fan of “The Jeweller’s Hands,” because it sounded like creepy toy store music at the beginning, but man did it grow on me – so catchy! “Fire and the Thud” is perhaps my least favorite of the Homme-produced tracks, but not weak in any way. It was just a tad bit boring…except for the delivery of that last line! On the opposite end of that, “Dangerous Animals” is likely my favorite track of them all.
Although “My Propeller” comes pretty damn close! Similar to “Dance Little Liar,” I also loved the “oohs” thrown in the background. The backing vocals in this record really seemed to add an extra special element this time around. Other songs that I really liked that were somehow not produced by Josh Homme included “Cornerstone” and “All the Pretty Visitors.” The later is a really creepy song, but then jams it up and sounds like it could have fit right in on Favourite Worst Nightmare. I appreciate the small bit of overlap to sort of cohere their stuff together over all their albums. “Cornerstone” is perhaps the most unlike any other song off of the rest of the album. It reminded me of the Beatles even though I’ve never really spent a lot of time listening to the Beatles. It was just softer and more mellow for them. It sounds like the video is equally as mesmerizing. And I know it’s one of their more popular songs, but the difference to their other music really jarred me at first, but damn if I wasn’t singing it later!
The only other track on the record that sounded quite different was “Secret Door.” It reminded me of something Cage the Elephant and Empire of the Sun could have collaborated on together (wouldn’t that be a cool collaboration?!). This song did fit in more with the rest of the album though. Overall, it felt like there was almost a dreamlike quality to a lot of the songs. While Alex Turner sang in plenty of other songs up until this point, there was something a bit smoother to his voice this time around. The same could be said for the instrumentals. While there might not have been much experimentation with different kinds of instruments (that I could tell), they definitely elicited a different sound from them. All in all I was glad to spend a lot of time with this record to really appreciate it.
I would say if you’re a fan of the band in any way, you’d really be missing out on not listening to anything from Humbug. Also, if you’re a Queens of the Stone Age fan, you should definitely give this a go. If I had to pick a top track from this to listen to, I think “My Propeller” really encapsulates everything that you hear throughout the rest of the tracks. Also, it’s catchy as all hell. If you want something a little more unique, then I’d say go with “The Jeweller’s Hands.” But at this point you’re listening to the opening and closing songs, so you might as well listen to them all!