Track Listing

1. Brianstorm
2. Teddy Picker
3. D Is for Dangerous
4. Balaclava
5. Fluorescent Adolescent
6. Only Ones Who Know
7. Do Me a Favour
8. This House is a Circus
9. If You Were There, Beware
10. Bad Thing
11. Old Yellow Bricks
12. 505

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #766 in Music
• Released on: 2007-04-23
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Explicit Lyrics

Amazon.co.uk Review
What to do if your first record becomes the fastest-selling album in UK chart history? If you're the Arctic Monkeys, you don't sweat it – you just swagger back with a follow-up, Favourite Worst Nightmare, that pulls the same old tricks with a few new twists. But even as "Balaclava" and "Do Me A Favour" bandy along with that familiar mix of provincial Everyman lingo, spat rap cadence, and scuzzy guitars, Favourite Worst Nightmare is shot through with the prevailing feeling this is the sound of consolidation, not retread. So, what's new? Well, there's evidence of a heavier edge here – lead-off single "Brianstorm" veritably tears along, all galloping drums, strafing guitar lines and blistering bons mots: "Can't take my eyes off yer T-shirt and tie combination," spits Alex Turner, "Well see ya later, innovator". Like the White Stripes, though, Arctic Monkeys invest their cranked garage with splashes of melodic invention – see how "If You Were There" veers between jerky riffs and Hall Of Mirrors weirdness. And it doesn't let up from beginning 'til end – or at least 'til the closing "505", a departure lounge lament that's downbeat and tired, like conquering the world finally took its toll. --Louis Pattison

CD Description
Sophomore album from the success story of 2006, whose debutalbum 'Whatever People Say I Am That's What I'm Not' won the Mercury Music Prize as well as Brit, Q and NME Awards and is the fastest-selling debut album in UK chart history. It'sa tall order to follow up, but here the Monkeys do it in fine style, unleashing a brute of a rock album built around clattering drums, raw, pounding guitar riffs and more of the band's trademark Northern cynicism. Includes the single 'Brianstorm'.

About the Artist
You could never accuse Arctic Monkeys of making anything easy for themselves. Their debut album `Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not', topped every end-of-year poll going, and became the fastest-selling debut in British chart history. Those are just the facts. But revolutions are about more than mere facts; and this rewired a generation, broke the boundaries between the moshpit and the dancefloor, invalidated the whole concept of celebrity culture to become that rarest of things, a smash hit with its soul intact. Most bands take years to whip up that sort of acclaim.

How could even these four talented young men hope to follow that? Forgive us for stating the obvious, but you go and make a better one. Arctic Monkeys had actually started work on `WPSIA,TWIN' with Simian Mobile Disco's James Ford and Mike Crossey, before they'd really become producers du jour, but for one reason or another, the sessions were abandoned and the job was completed by Jim Abiss. But sensing kindred spirits - and with a renewed sense of confidence in their instincts after everything went so spectacularly right first time - they returned to their old mentors, whose star had risen in line with their own over the previous two years. "I think it was very obvious from when we did that first session that it was sound with them," affirms Alex, "they understood it." "And," adds Jamie, "they're not much older than us really."

After locking themselves away from the world first time round, the band decided to record in Miloco Studios in Shoreditch, East London, "getting all new rave in East London," says Matt, slyly. The experience saw them embrace full flow of the city, going out, living life and even having a bit of a party. "I think you can really hear it in the snare sound!" jokes Matt, but he's closer to the truth than he thinks.

The other big change within the ranks of Arctic Monkeys was the introduction of old friend Nick O'Malley on bass halfway through last year. This, too, was taken in everybody's stride. "I'd known them all since I was 10 years old," says Nick of his new bandmates. "We've all lived in the same area, so it wasn't like coming into a band where I didn't know what they'd be like. It's just been a laugh really, it's been fine."

Customer Reviews

Arctic Monkey's - Phase II
Any comparisons made with the preceding album are foolish. This is a successful Arctic Monkeys. No longer are they fighting and getting thrown in a riot van. No longer getting chucked from club queues from bouncers who want it all to kick off. They are no longer Brian.

The change in this album is vast and it would have been disappointing if they'd tried to emulate their first album. They've expressed the fast, intense life of living it at the top which is evident in the pace of Brianstorm. Telling us nothing stays at rest with the changing pace of Balaclava. This House Is A Circus speaks for itself. And Teddy Picker is pure genius.

Yes they haven't moved completely away from the Sheffield boys as in between all the vast differences there is the occasional song that could easily fit into the 1st album. Fluorescent Adolescent is the best song in the album and has all the cheek and lyrical fluency of Mardy Bum and A Certain Romance. I believe Only Ones Who Know is the only major disappointment on the album. Its placement in the album seems to suggest it's an attempt of slowing down the whole album, similar to Riot Van, but unlike Riot Van, just isn't as clever. But this is Phase II.

Arctic Monkeys are showing their true colours with this second album - they are not a stand still band trying to recapture the spark of past success. They are a band that are evolving with the culture of their local surroundings, which is what music is right?

Words over sound to convey an experience experienced by those making the music.

MMMM, not sure
I think I might get slated for this but am I the only person who thinks the first album is a whole load better. Don't get me wrong musically it is tight, flawless infact. They have obviously come on leaps and bounds but something is missing. OLD YELLOW BRICKS, TEDDY PICKER and BALACLAVA are the exception to the rule. One thing I liked about the first album was the laddishness, references to nights on the lash in any town really and above all catchy tunes. Other than the songs I mentioned above this album isn't that catchy. Don't get me wrong, they are one of my favourite bands still, I just reckon expectations of them are off the scale. This is still a good album to get you dancing and bass lines continue to be well funky.....just give me the first album anyday.

Social Commentary you can dance too.
I write this as a 18-year-old girl living in Yorkshire. I think once again the Artic Monkeys have captured the essence of life as a teenager in the North, despite living in an affluent North Yorkshire town rather than Sheffield the lyric; 'I live in the city that never wakes up, blinded by nostalgia' speaks out to me as true of Yorkshire. The subject matter of 'Fluorescent Adolescent' speaks volumes as everything I don't what for my future yet the path I know some of the girls I go to school with will take (some have already started) because unless you go to Oxbridge (its that type of town) nobody goes South (or goes near Lancashire).
Yorkshire, like many northern counties is still suffering the loss of the industrial sector but unlike places like Northumberland where my mother is from, it is too arrogant to do anything. I have spent the last 9 years being looked down on because I was born in East London and don't have a northern accent despite the fact everyone knows where London is, how many people can point to Leeds, Bradford or York on a map (the people in my town seemed to think our little town is on the international radar yet in our America equivalent they don't even pronounce it properly)? They don't like outsiders and won't fight back. The hatred of the South is phenomenal and far outstrips Southern disdain (which can be nasty and is unfair to be true)of the North. I feel the Artic Monkeys describe the helplessness of the North in the face of fear and prejudice towards new ideas. I loved their first album 'Whatever...' but I sometimes felt that was a little superficial and being throw out of nightclubs, although an important part of teenage life, and boys acting like boys is very real it doesn't have the emotional impact for a girl who loves the North (despite the weather) but wants the bang the heads together of some of the residents.
'Do Me a Favour' is in brilliant and heartbreaking for its accurate description of break ups and the parting of ways that some many teenagers feel without the amateur dramatics that some artists produce; its a quiet and melancholy lament for 'tearing apart the ties that bind' without sacrificing the Monkeys' sound.
My favourite song of the album is 'Teddy Picker' if not for the crisp and infectious beat and melody, its the wonderful insult at the end 'Who'd what to be men of the people when there are people like you'. Something I have always wanted to say to people who only watch Look North and think going to Blackpool is sacrelidge. Plus its rather funny.
I recommend this album as well as its predescessor if you do not already have it, not only for its symbolism and mildy insulting wit but as music that intellectuals can pour over whilst me and my friends go out and dance on tables to it.
And also, despite all of the above and not to sound too much like a victim of my generation; the Artic Monkeys and their music are just cool.