Arctic Monkeys featured previously in this 7″ nostalgia fest. On that occasion, it was Brianstorm, the lead-off single from their second album, Favourite Worst Nightmare. I feel I can just about repeat the opening two paras:-
“Fair play to Arctic Monkeys who indicated well in advance of any new material that they weren’t going to be content with simply regurgitating the indie-sounds of their 2006 debut album and 2007 sophomore album, and the various hit singles they had spawned.
But I don’t think anyone was fully prepared for the lead-off single for the third album.”
mp3: Arctic Monkeys – Crying Lightning
The band had more or less taken 2008 off with singer/songwriter Alex Turner embarking on his side project The Last Shadow Puppets. It was then announced that Arctic Monkeys third album would be recorded in the USA and that hard-rocking Josh Homme, best known as the frontman of Queens of The Stone Age, would be taking on production duties. The indie kids must have been trembling in fear.
The internet now recalls that the song was given its debut on 6 July 2009 on a Radio 1 show hosted by Zane Lowe, one of the band’s earliest and loudest champions, and made available that same day as an iTunes download the same day. It was well different from what had come before, with the opening few bars in particular being as hard or as stoner as anything Homme was normally associated with. It was a bold move, and with the benefit of hindsight, can be seen as laying the foundations for the band to constantly shift and shape change with each passing year and new album with Alex Turner determined never to be accused of either resting on his laurels or being a one-trick pony.
The band advised that the single wouldn’t be available in any physical format until mid-August, some seven days ahead of the new album, which was to be called Humbug. It was also revealed that the vinyl would be a limited run and only available via charity shops run by Oxfam.
The downloads alone in the first week took Crying Lightning into the singles chart at #12. It fell back down the chart over the next few weeks, dropping to #72 before jumping back up again to #45 in the week that vinyl was released.
The b-side was a blistering and unexpected cover:-
mp3: Arctic Monkeys – Red Right Hand
Four years prior to Nick Cave‘s song becoming really well known thanks to its association with the TV drama series Peaky Blinders.
My copy of the 7″ single is second-hand and was bought at least five years later. I got it from a charity shop on the south side of Glasgow, close to Villain Towers, but not Oxfam. There was no sticker on the front of the sleeve, and from memory I paid £5.
JC
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 