Right, let's not mince words here. Cheeky young Sheffield tykes THE ARCTIC MONKEYS are gonna be huge this year.
You don't need me to re-iterate the astounding success of their 'proper' first single "I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor" and the Beatlemania-style scenes that have been following them around the UK and beyond since last summer's festival season, but it's important to remember why we're all so hot under the collar to begin with: the music. And the fact that t'Monkeys are fast becoming one of the most distinctive and inventive bands on the dear old indie guitar band circuit.
Surefire number one follow-up "When The Sun Goes Down" is truly magnificent. Originally titled "Scummy Man", it opens with Alex Turner in wry'n'witty observational mode ("She doesn't do major credit cards/ I doubt she does receipts"), setting up a great, all-too-believable prostitutes and scumbags scene from the streets which may be knowingly humourous but also considerably darker than the thwarted-when-on-the-pull scenario that was "I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor." At around the one-minute mark, t'Monkeys harsh'n'heavy indie-funk batters down the back door, the guitars get clipped and metallic and the rhythm section snap like half-starved Jack Russells. Needless to say by the time they've finished they've stolen your heart with their Smiths-meets-Libertines ramalama and even made grudgeful old gits like me feel they're 16 again.
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So there you have it. Hard, energetic, witty, beautifully observed and good enough to get away with the F-word on radio with a bit of luck, "When The Sun Goes Down" may be a commentary on peoples' desperate lives going down the pan, but it's also the sound of the indie ante being raised to an alarming degree. The album and tour are set to follow. It seems preordained that only phrases such as 'the sky's the limit' will be applicable from here on in.
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