Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not

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Whatever People Say I Am,
That's What I'm Not
Whatever People Say I Am,That's What I'm Not cover
Studio album by Arctic Monkeys
Released 23 January 2006
Recorded The Chapel Studio
Lincolnshire, England
2 Fly Studio
Sheffield, England
Telstar Studios
Munich, Germany
Genre Indie rock
Length 40:56
Label Domino
WIG162
Producer Jim Abbiss and Alan Smyth
Professional reviews
Arctic Monkeys chronology
Beneath the Boardwalk (2004) Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not
(2006)		 Favourite Worst Nightmare
(2007)

Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not is the debut album by Sheffield band Arctic Monkeys, released on 23 January 2006. The album, gaining its name from the film Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, became the fastest selling debut album in the UK since records began, selling over 360,000 copies in its first week, but losing the title in November 2007 to Leona Lewis's album Spirit. It has since gone quadruple platinum in the UK,[1] and won the 2006 Mercury Prize.[2]

The album includes both tracks from the band's original EP, Five Minutes with Arctic Monkeys, as well as their first two singles and UK Number Ones, "I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor" and "When the Sun Goes Down".

Contents

[edit] Release

The original release date was scheduled as 30 January 2006, but was brought forward to 23 January 2006 due to "high demand". Although the same was done with Franz Ferdinand, there remains continued speculation that the move was an attempt to counter the effects of the album's leak onto online file-sharing sites.[3] Although many of the tracks featured on the album were freely available to download in early 2005 from uploaded demo CDs given out by the band, the re-recorded album versions had also been leaked onto the internet by December 2005.

On the first day of its release, the album became the fastest selling debut album in British history (but has recently been beaten by Leona Lewis), selling just under 120,000 copies. By the end of the week, the album had sold 363,735 copies - more than the rest of the Top 20 combined and making it the overall fastest selling debut album in British history. Its release in the United States on 21 February 2006 saw it become the second fastest selling debut indie album in history,[4] turning over around 34,000 copies in its first week and achieving #24 in the album charts. The album also went to #1 in Australia and Ireland.

The track "Mardy Bum", while not released as a single, appeared on radio playlists throughout the UK in mid-2006.[citation needed] The track "A Certain Romance" was ranked #90 in Pitchfork Media's Top 100 Tracks of 2006.[5]

[edit] Name

The week before its release, the source behind the album's name was revealed as a quote from northern actor Albert Finney and the 1960s film Saturday Night and Sunday Morning.[6] The band are reportedly fans of old British '60s movies, and lead singer Alex Turner revealed to UK-tabloid The Sun that the film is what the album is about. "Songs including "The View from the Afternoon", "Dancing Shoes", "Still Take You Home" and "From the Ritz to the Rubble" all cover that bit of the weekend and feature the same character."[7]

[edit] Cover sleeve

The image on the cover of the album is a photo of Chris McClure - a friend of the band and brother of Jon McClure of Reverend and the Makers - taken in the early hours of the morning in Korova bar, Liverpool [8] after the band had given him, his cousin and his best mate, "seventy quid to spend on a night out".[9] The image caused some controversy when the head of Scotland's NHS criticised the cover for "reinforcing the idea that smoking is OK".[10] The band's product manager denied the accusation, and in fact suggested the opposite - "You can see from the image smoking is not doing him the world of good". In March 2006, McClure announced that he would be giving up smoking, due to lack of funds.[11] Billboard advertisements for the album used a similar image to the cover picture, but without the cigarette.

[edit] Awards

[edit] Singles

[edit] Track listing

Lyrics written by Alex Turner, except where noted; music by Arctic Monkeys.

  1. "The View from the Afternoon" – 3:38
  2. "I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor" – 2:53
  3. "Fake Tales of San Francisco" – 2:57
  4. "Dancing Shoes" – 2:21
  5. "You Probably Couldn't See for the Lights But You Were Staring Straight at Me" – 2:10
  6. "Still Take You Home" (Turner/Cook) – 2:53
  7. "Riot Van" – 2:14
  8. "Red Light Indicates Doors Are Secured" – 2:23
  9. "Mardy Bum" – 2:55
  10. "Perhaps Vampires Is a Bit Strong But..." – 4:28
  11. "When the Sun Goes Down" – 3:20
  12. "From the Ritz to the Rubble" – 3:13
  13. "A Certain Romance" – 5:31

[edit] Statistics

[edit] Sales

  • UK - 1,200,000+ - 4x Platinum
  • USA - 305,000 [12]
  • Japan - 103,734 - Gold
  • Australia - 70,000 - Platinum
  • France - 49,000
  • Argentina - 100,000 - Platinum
  • Denmark - 20,000 - Gold
  • New Zealand - 7,500 - Gold
  • Worldwide - 2,310,000

[edit] Highest chart positions

Highest chart positions
Country UK DE AUS IRE FIN JPN NED NZ CH DAN SUI FRA BEL AUT USA SWE ITA CAN
Position
#1
#1
#1
#1
#8
#9
#13
#15
#15
#16
#16
#17
#19
#23
#24
#26
#40
#46

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Arctic Monkeys make chart history", BBC News, 2006-01-29. 
  2. ^ "Arctic Monkeys win Mercury prize", BBC, 2006-09-05. 
  3. ^ "Arctic Monkeys album rush released", NME, 2006-01-05. 
  4. ^ "Arctic Monkeys make chart history", BBC, 2006-01-29. 
  5. ^ Pitchfork Feature: The Top 100 Tracks of 2006
  6. ^ "Saturday Night and Sunday Morning", IMDb. Retrieved on 2006-08-26. 
  7. ^ "Monkeys explain album", Yahoo! News, 2006-01-09. 
  8. ^ NME.COM - Arctic Monkeys - A Scummy Man and Mardy Bums: The ultimate Arctic Monkeys Album Guide
  9. ^ Wichelow, Sam. "Familiar face?", BBC News - South Yorkshire, 2006-02-09. 
  10. ^ "Arctic Monkeys defend album cover", BBC News, 2006-02-03. 
  11. ^ "Arctic Monkeys Cover Star Quits Smoking", Entertainmentwise, 2006-03-29. 
  12. ^ "Arctic Monkeys Win UK's Mercury Prize", Billboard, 2006-09-05. 

[edit] External links

Preceded by
Stars of CCTV by Hard-Fi		 UK Albums Chart number-one album
January 29 - February 19, 2006		 Succeeded by
In Between Dreams by Jack Johnson
Preceded by
Sing-A-Longs and Lullabies for the Film Curious George by Jack Johnson		 Australian ARIA Albums Chart number-one album
February 27, 2006		 Succeeded by
Face to Face by Westlife
v • d • e
Arctic Monkeys
Alex Turner · Matt Helders · Jamie Cook · Nick O'Malley
Andy Nicholson · Glyn Jones
Studio albums
Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not · Favourite Worst Nightmare
Demos & EPs
Singles
Limited edition &
radio only singles
Films
Related articles