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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.
