Oasis vs. The Arctic Monkeys

I spent last Friday night at a bar (mook) in Notting Hill celebrating Jenny’s 30th Birthday. It was a great night despite the music being at a level that meant that the following morning, anyone that had spent any time actually talking to people, woke up with either no voice or a very sore throat. I had a great time catching up with some people that I hadn’t seen for a while. One of these people was James Underwood, a good friend and, at least as importantly, someone that I can talk to about music, films and Nick Hornby style top 5 lists with without repetition, hesitation or pause. During a long conversation that included our top 5 lists of last year and various other geeky things, the subject of the arctic monkeys and their huge debut album (Whatever people say I am, that’s what I’m not) came up. The last time I can remember a debut album causing this much of a stir was Oasis’ definitely maybe, so I asked him which one he thought was the best. I must be honest and confess that I can’t remember what he said, but since then I’ve been trying to work out what I thought about this question.

So, which album is better? If we judge on sales then the arctic monkeys (since they do have the biggest selling debut album of all time have sold over 360’000 copies) clearly win. But then if we judge things on sales then that makes James Blunt, Westlife and all the other waste of space ‘bands’ very good, which clearly they’re not. Musically both albums are fairly basic guitar driven albums. There’s nothing hugely inventive or different about the music on these albums from many other guitar albums. They both take a sound that was (or is) progressing and popular at the time but also feel in some ways a culmination of everything that is or was going on in the indie scene. They both come from northern cities, which at first may just seem either a bit irrelevant or just grandstanding on the part of us northerners but it does mean that both bands have made it big without moving to London. This means that both bands have had to build up a following and a reputation in their own cities before being taken notice of by the ‘people in the know’ of the music scene. In the case of Oasis this was done through creation records and particularly Alan McGee, with the arctic monkeys it was with clever use of the internet (which in those ancient days of the mid 90’s was not an option) and for both of them it was an embracement by the music press and people (and more specifically) the teenagers that embrace and identify with the music and the style.

So to the important things, the songs themselves. Both albums are consistently full of songs I love, even the naffer songs on each album (digsby’s dinner or red light indicates doors locked). Neither album really has any great variety on it just slightly louder/quieter/faster/slower songs of the same type. Lyrically the arctic monkeys album is consistently better oasis. Alex Turner has a similar sort of lyrical style to that other great Sheffield bloke Jarvis Cocker, full of whit, cynicism and biting humour. He’s introduced the distinctly phrase ‘mardy bum’ (think ‘stroppy cow’) to the world and my personal favourite ‘There's only music, so that there's new ringtones’. Of course on the other hand we have oasis singing about ‘driving with my friend mr soft; mr clean and mr ben are living in my loft’. Not that all Oasis’ lyrics are bad, cigarettes and alcohol, rock and roll star and live forever are songs that defined my generation and, when I was a teenager expressed my thoughts and dreams better than anyone else. I’ve got to be honest here say that, in the end, no matter what I think musically about the albums, it’s always going to be difficult for me to choose anything over definitely maybe. Mainly because I’m not 15 anymore, and as much as I hate to admit it, and as much as I still love and get excited about music, it just isn’t in the same way as when I was 15. When I was 15 music was my entire world. When a new album, a new song, a new band came out that excited me, it was the most important thing in my life and as good as any new music is, I’ll never quite feel like that about music now.

So which album do I think is the best? Of course Oasis suffer from the fact that the album’s over 10 years old and incredibly familiar to everyone over 16 and that they’ve since released 5 carbon copy albums of varying, but always at least slightly substandard, quality. It’s not really fair to let that dilute the brilliance of Definitely Maybe, but there’s over 10 years of disappointment associated with Oasis that the Arctic Monkeys just don’t have. [Just on a side note, was doing some studio work with an 11 year old this week who happened to mention he like guitar bands but just looked blank when I mentioned Oasis, I must be getting old.] The Arctic Monkeys on the other hand are still at the point where not only is their music still exciting, new and young, so are they. These guys only got their instruments for their 18th birthdays and only one of them has reached 20. If they’ve gone from not really playing to this album in under 2 years and they keep developing musically at the same rate they could be an outstanding band. There is a hope of that when you listen to them that just doesn’t exist anymore when I listen to Oasis. SO which album do I think is better? Well, at the moment I’d rather listen to the arctic monkeys than anyone. Does that make it a better record? Probably not. Nearly 12 years later I still love listening to Definitely Maybe and there’s a remembered excitement and nostalgia when I do. Will I be able to say the same about the arctic monkeys in 12 years time will be a fairer way of judging the two. Of course by then, the Arctic Monkeys could either be as big, exciting and innovative as Radiohead, or bring a vague memory of a half decent album.