Music
All-Time High (And Low) Scores
Best Of 2009
Best Of 2008
Best Of 2007
Best Of 2006
Best Of 2005
Best Of 2004
Best Of 2003
Best Of 2002
Best Of 2001
Best Of 2000
Upcoming &
Recent Releases
62
50 Cent
70
AFI
65
Air
70
Alice In Chains
53
Kris Allen
78
Amerie
79
Annie
76
Anti-Pop Consortium
86
The Antlers
75
Arctic Monkeys
68
As Tall As Lions
82
Atlas Sound
77
The Avett Brothers
67
Backstreet Boys
59
Bad Lieutenant
68
Devendra Banhart
71
Lou Barlow
88
Baroness
69
Basement Jaxx
81
David Bazan
72
Beak>
72
Brendan Benson
84
Biffy Clyro
72
The Big Pink
95
Big Star
46
Billy Talent
75
The Black Crowes
72
The Black Heart Procession
68
Blitzen Trapper
75
BLK JKS
53
Bon Jovi
76
A.A. Bondy
65
Boys Like Girls
76
Brand New
73
Tyondai Braxton
83
Brother Ali
72
Ian Brown
75
Michael Buble
77
Built To Spill
61
Colbie Caillat
78
Califone
69
Mariah Carey
81
Brandi Carlile
72
Julian Casablancas
83
Rosanne Cash
71
Castanets
65
The Cave Singers
82
Nick Cave & Warren Ellis
64
Exene Cervenka
79
Vic Chesnutt
75
Choir Of Young Believers
81
Circulatory System
67
The Clean
84
The Clientele
72
Cold Cave
85
Converge
71
Eric Copeland
76
The Cribs
79
Cymbals Eat Guitars
62
Dashboard Confessional
71
Datarock
59
Dead By Sunrise
76
Dead Man's Bones
77
Del The Funky Homosapien & Tame One
88
Destroyer
73
Do Make Say Think
63
The Dodos
77
Drive-By Truckers
67
Bob Dylan
58
Echo & The Bunnymen
61
Electric Six
44
The Entrance Band
69
Fanfarlo
71
Jay Farrar And Benjamin Gibbard
63
Felix Da Housecat
68
Fink
66
Orenda Fink
79
The Flaming Lips
66
Flight Of The Conchords
79
Florence And The Machine
67
John Fogerty
83
Fuck Buttons
71
Nelly Furtado
47
Gary Go
68
Ghostface Killah
79
Girls
69
Gossip
62
David Gray
66
David Guetta
65
Calvin Harris
79
Richard Hawley
74
Mayer Hawthorne
66
Headlights
79
HEALTH
77
Joe Henry
67
Hockey
67
Whitney Houston
80
Hudson Mohawke
68
Imogen Heap
59
Jack Ingram
79
Islands
74
Jamie T
65
Jay-Z
51
Jet
68
Daniel Johnston
76
Norah Jones
77
Karen O And The Kids
72
Toby Keith
69
Kid Cudi
75
Kid Sister
66
Kings Of Convenience
62
Sean Kingston
64
KISS
63
Mark Knopfler
73
Kris Kristofferson
68
KRS-One & Buckshot
76
La Roux
85
Miranda Lambert
72
Ledisi
71
Sondre Lerche
56
Juliette Lewis
62
Leona Lewis
82
Lightning Bolt
74
Little Dragon
44
Pixie Lott
83
Patty Loveless
73
Lyle Lovett
79
Lucero
75
Baaba Maal
77
Madness
84
Madonna
85
Manic Street Preachers
61
Maps
73
Mario
55
Massive Attack
57
Matisyahu
62
John Mayer
67
Reba McEntire
66
Tim McGraw
65
Brian McKnight
79
Mew
75
Mika
68
Amy Millan
76
Mission Of Burma
75
Molina And Johnson
80
Monsters Of Folk
66
Morrissey
85
Mount Eerie
76
The Mountain Goats
62
Múm
72
Muse
66
Willie Nelson
82
Nirvana
96
Nirvana
80
No Age
71
Noah And The Whale
75
Noisettes
79
Nudge
64
OneRepublic
47
Dolores O'Riordan
74
Os Mutantes
78
Osso
67
Alec Ounsworth
81
Owen
73
Paramore
78
Pastels And Tenniscoats
54
Sean Paul
80
Pearl Jam
69
Jemina Pearl
72
Jack Penate
65
Phish
82
Pissed Jeans
61
Pitbull
79
A Place To Bury Strangers
79
Polvo
72
Porcupine Tree
72
Port O'Brien
79
Q-Tip
79
R.E.M.
88
Raekwon
69
Rain Machine
70
Ramona Falls
75
Dizzee Rascal
74
The Raveonettes
79
Real Estate
76
Jay Reatard
81
Rodrigo Y Gabriela
66
Omar Rodriguez-Lopez
78
Russian Circles
69
Hope Sandoval & The Warm Inventions
78
Say Anything
61
Sally Shapiro
78
Shudder To Think
70
Simian Mobile Disco
58
Simple Minds
72
Six Organs Of Admittance
80
Slayer
61
The Slits
78
Soulsavers
77
Speech Debelle
58
Spiral Stairs
58
Squarepusher
55
Steel Panther
75
Sufjan Stevens
52
Rod Stewart
68
Joss Stone
83
Barbra Streisand
77
A Sunny Day In Glasgow
74
Susanna And The Magical Orchestra
79
The Swell Season
80
David Sylvian
83
Taken By Trees
80
Tegan And Sara
68
The Temper Trap
78
The Dutchess & The Duke
71
The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart
74
Them Crooked Vultures
72
Themselves
82
They Might Be Giants
67
Third Eye Blind
66
J Tillman
69
Times New Viking
57
Tokio Hotel
67
Trey Songz
73
Frank Turner
71
The Twilight Sad
60
Carrie Underwood
56
The Used
68
Various Artists
69
Various Artists
77
The Very Best
70
Kurt Vile
65
Vivian Girls
71
Volcano Choir
73
Rufus Wainwright
78
Wale
57
Weezer
81
White Denim
76
Why?
83
Wild Beasts
80
Wildbirds & Peacedrums
69
Robbie Williams
59
Andrew W.K.
65
Wolfmother
84
The xx
79
Yo La Tengo
83
Yoko Ono Plastic Ono Band
52
Pete Yorn & Scarlett Johansson
59
Zero 7
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed albums.
Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not
Universal acclaim
Based on 33 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 407 votes
Read user comments
Rate this album >
Album Info
Label: Domino
Release Date: 21 February 2006
Discs: 1 disc
Genre(s): Indie, Rock
Summary
Not only the most-hyped band of early 2006, Sheffield, England's Arctic Monkeys (led by 19-year-old Alex Turner) managed to accomplish what the likes of Franz Ferdinand and The Libertines couldn't do before them: set the UK record for fastest-selling debut album of all time.
Also By This Artist: Favourite Worst Nightmare Humbug
Also On The Web: Official Artist Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
New Musical Express
Even if you've been fortunate enough to live with these tracks over the last year or so, they still sound more vital, more likely to make you form your own band than anything else out there.
Read Full Review >The Guardian
The spectre of Oasis lurks around Arctic Monkeys, proof that even the most promising beginnings can turn into a dreary, reactionary bore. For now, however, they look and sound unstoppable.
Read Full Review >The New York Times
You probably won't hear a better CD all year long. [30 Jan 2006]
Read Full Review >Uncut
The thrill it provides will send a shiver of recognition through anyone who grew up with The Specials, The Smiths or Parklife. [Album of the Month, March 2006, p.86]
Blender
What elevates the Monkeys into a class of their own is Turner. [Apr 2006, p.113]
Village Voice (Consumer Guide)
Many details are too U.K.-specific for Yank-yob gratification. But aesthetes will come to enjoy Taylor's nuanced adenoids and his bandmates' thought-through arrangements.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly
This club-crawler's-eye-view perspective sets Turner apart from his contemporaries, as does the music. [24 Feb 2006, p.60]
Billboard
A remarkable debut by a band full of raw energy. [25 Feb 2006]
Dot Music
Such is the depth and quality of Turner's songwriting, it plays like a best of.
Read Full Review >musicOMH.com
It's not a totally perfect record, for which we should be thankful - remember what happened to The Stone Roses after they'd released their flawless debut? - but it is an excellent first album, and gives notice that Alex Turner is already one of this country's best lyricists.
Read Full Review >Mojo
This is thrilling, incontrovertible evidence of a major new talent in our midst. [Mar 2006, p.102]
Q Magazine
So no, it's not perfect. But Whatever People Say... has that edge, that thrill that comes only when a band have hit the zeitgeist hard and timed the punch to perfection. [Mar 2006, p.102]
Spin
Blunt and bratty, emotionally pubescent. [Mar 2006, p.93]
PopMatters
Yes, theirs is a sound similar to a lot of the names jaded hipsters and criterati will spew on auto-fire disdain, but no-one else really sounds like them, and very few people indeed are writing taut rockin' pop songs under three minutes long that are simultaneously as smart and as unpretentious as those proffered here.
Read Full Review >NOW Magazine
Their riff-heavy songs are brashly delivered – favouring attitude over technique – but it's Turner's keenly observed vignettes of bored text-messaging teens that really connect.
Read Full Review >Rolling Stone
A start-to-finish rush of invigorating riffs and pointed narratives that heightens with repeated exposure.
Read Full Review >Delusions of Adequacy
So yeah, this album is pretty freakin’ good... but it’s not going to change your perspective on music.
Read Full Review >E! Online
There are some impossibly fun tunes in the mix.... But will this album really change your life? No.
Read Full Review >Pitchfork
At times charming, oddly affecting, and certainly promising but understandably something less than life changing.
Read Full Review >Neumu.net
Despite dozens of listens, much of Whatever People Say congeals together like so much spent gravy, with only the clever couplets sticking out.
Read Full Review >All Music Guide
If his band had either a stronger musical viewpoint or more kinetic energy, or if their songs didn't play like a heap of riffs, such provincial shortcomings would be transcended by the sheer force of the music. But the music, while good, is not great.
Read Full Review >Urb
The Arctic Monkeys are not a bad band; they're just a band with catchy lyrics, summer blues riffs and an arsenal of runaway hits. [Mar 2006, p.112]
Trouser Press
Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not manages to celebrate and mock its cultural milieu simultaneously with genuine affection and sarcasm balanced so well that the scale never tips too far either way.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club)
Song after song returns to the same nightclubs for the same set of cocky put-downs and faintly misogynist come-ons. Meanwhile, the band fumbles through a sound that seems to have been assembled from pieces of retro-minded rock acts like The Strokes and Franz Ferdinand, but without the sense of purpose or history.
Read Full Review >Prefix Magazine
When the record's not playing, it's hard to miss it, and the tracks that aren't standouts are simply boring.
Read Full Review >Stylus Magazine
Put it this way: do you think "Panic (Hang the DJ)" with its unique branch of bitterness, provincialism, and notions of white pride was the Smiths' best song? You'll be like a hog in shit here, then. If not... avoid. Like the plague.
Read Full Review >Lost At Sea
The prevailing lack of substance declares itself by the time "Still Take You Home" kicks in, and it becomes evident that Alex Turner’s somewhat chirpy vocals are the album’s lone cohesive influence.
Read Full Review >Tiny Mix Tapes
This is the new big British band? This is barely inspired enough to make it off campus.
Read Full Review >No Ripcord
One good single does not a great album make, and unfortunately, the rest of the record becomes pretty tedious, pretty quickly.
Read Full Review >Playlouder
The trouble is, the much-lauded braggadocio of 'Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not' is hollow.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this album is 7.1 (out of 10) based on 407 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
danny boy gave it a10:
Like ok computer and definitely maybe before it you just cannot dent this album. despite being played on the basic set up of guitars bass and drums it strill manges to sound utterly unique. following on from the libertenes and the strokes anyone who likes popular music of anykind should find something to like about this album. it doesn't matter if the NME seem to like them a lot. what is important is that this is damn good old fashioned British indie rock. buy it now.
Al S gave it a10:
This album is excellent.
Alonso C gave it a10:
Just one of the best albums of the new popular music.
benedict b gave it a10:
This is the album of the 21st century so far. every song is genius, a brilliantly relevant punk revival infused with dance and modern indie music. it takes from the past but never once looks back and everything is brilliantly modern. when im 50 this will have been my album, my generations album.
Andrew W gave it a10:
This album is an absolute masterpiece. Too many people think brilliant lyricists are those where the words are so obscure noone can understand them (ala Radiohead). Alex Turner has started to go down this route with some of his most recent songs but this album has intelligent laugh out loud lyrics like no album anywhere and tells the story of a night out in northern England (from dancing at a nightclub in Dancing Shoes through to catching the cab home in Red Light Indicates Doors are Secure). There isnt a single filler track in here and I'm convinced this will be the best album the Arctic Monkeys will ever make and imo will go down as a true modern great.
prostitute_finger gave it a3:
Too primitive and boring commercial shit. Only few interesting and fun moments exist.
Byron H. gave it a10:
This album is great by all standards. It takes the music of its forebears and polishes it to a shine (it has its misses, but there is no such thing as a ABSOLUTELY perfect album. Even OK Computer has its similarities in songs like No Suprises and Let Down, and that album is a definite ten.) To people with their heads up their asses about them being overhyped and saying that the band is sub-par based on that, screw yourselves. I found this band by accident before I even had an idea what NME was. This album is great and takes music in agood direction.
