British band haven’t just fulfilled expectations, they have transcended them.  Full text...

Favourite Worst Nightmare picks up exactly where the Monkeys left off: With Alex Turner's snide, cutting observations and a love for the most basic of rock dynamics -- loud guitars and a pounding rhythm section -- The Arctic Monkeys prove that a back-to-basics approach to rock'n'roll is always the best one.  Full text...

It's second album time for the Class of 2005, and already The Rakes, Bloc Party and Maxïmo Park have produced their sophomore efforts with rather mixed results so far. Now it's time for arguably the most eagerly awaited album of the year, as the most famous foursome from Sheffield set out to prove they're not just a flash in the pan.  Full text...

This time, they're older, wiser (or not), and straight out of a John Osbourne play. Turner's disaffected vocals enhance the aura of kitchen-sink melodrama that permeates the album. Apart from the hilarious opener, "Brianstorm," and the last track, "505," lyrically the album rests in 1965. Only the unstoppable rhythm section and scattershot guitar drag the album into the present.   Full text...

On soph CD, Arctic Monkeys grapple with success.  Full text...

Hey, hey, it's the Monkeys. And their second disc, Favourite Worst Nightmare proves they're still hype-worthy  Full text...

Even by the standards of the Arctic Monkeys - a band preoccupied with puncturing expectations, as only people saddled with unrealistic expectations can be - the single that heralds the follow-up to the biggest-selling debut album in British history is a deflating experience.  Full text...

They're stretching tentacles into other musical areas, not least the disco-funk-rock groove of "Old Yellow Bricks", the organ-fattened, stop-start "Fluorescent Adolescent", and particularly the ruminative approach of the sole slow number "Only Ones Who Know", couched in cavernous reverb and embellished with Richard Hawley-esque retro-twang guitar. If the Monkeys continue to develop like this, and manage to avoid the distractions and evade the hangers-on, who knows what they might achieve?  Full text...

Alex Turner's troupe return, bigger and funkier .  Full text...

Monkeys make good second impression.  Full text...

At every turn this record astonishes with its accomplishment and whilst the band continue to tread this beautiful line between youthful naiveté, growing musical literacy and emotional depth, they remain one of our moribund chart's few true great promises.  Full text...

Though Alex Turner continues to be crudely hailed as akin to Alan Bennett, the blunt narratives that garnered his band their initial acclaim have been softened in favour of more lyrical ambiguity.  Full text...

The Arctic Monkeys rock, hard.  Full text...

Many thought the Arctic Monkeys incapable of living up to the outrageous expectations established due to the success of their debut album. However, with Favourite Worst Nightmare the four young men prove entirely capable of meeting the hype.  Full text...

These kids are only about twenty-one years old, and although Favourite Worst Nightmare doesn't prove Arctic Monkeys to be the best rock band in the world, it does seem now like it could only be a matter of time before something does.  Full text...

This doesn’t feel like the Arctic Monkeys’ second album. Perhaps it’s the alarmingly brief gestation time (fourteen months), but this feels like another first album—not because it doesn’t experiment but because the baggage usually attached to a successful band’s second record is absent here, or so jumbled, jostled, pawed through in customs and mixed up in holds as to be a different kind of baggage altogether.  Full text...

If Favourite Worst Nightmare is notably lacking something, it's another song like the debut's standout, "A Certain Romance". Arctic Monkeys have now traveled the world, and their new material veers from such detail-rich tales of growing up in provincial England, at times focusing instead on subject matter Blur pursued with sharper wit (and only slightly sharper hooks) on The Great Escape.  Full text...

Arctic Monkeys have tightened up as a band and play more powerfully than before.  Full text...

Most of Nightmare sounds confident, unlabored and just plain good -- English cool without English bullshit. The Arctic Monkeys are the new Arctic Monkeys.  Full text...

Feverishly anticipated sophomore effort from Sheffield upstarts disappoints and excites in equal measure.  Full text...

The band lock together with a fluidity and instinctiveness not found on their debut, allowing them to experiment sonically without losing focus.  Full text...

The songs are less garrulous, but more focused, their melodies minor -- in both senses of the word -- and carried for the most part by brusque and overzealous execution (check: “Brianstorm”).  Full text...