Arctic Monkeys are at Terminal 5 for two shows

Terminal 5
610 West 56th St. between 11th & 12th Aves.
December 10-11, $34.50-$39.50, 8:00
212-665-3832
www.myspace.com/arcticmonkeys
www.terminal5nyc.com

If Noel Gallagher had a nicer, cleaner, more talented son, it might just have been Arctic Monkeys lead singer Alex Turner. With his heart on his sleeve, Turner writes lyrics that reflect a man who has spent too much time looking at his mug in the mirror of the pub’s bathroom. Displaying a restless spirit filled with punk attitude, Turner’s songs are about mardy bums and balaclavas, preaching to those more British than the British yet not old enough to vote. Nearly every Monkeys song is a fast, brash, extremely catchy two minutes about being young and distraught. In fact, they have hardly ever experimented past their guitar/bass/drums formula until their latest album, HUMBUG (Domino, August 2009), on which they crank up the synths and go psychedelic under stoner-rock legend Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone Age, Them Crooked Vultures). Homme pushed them outside their comfort zone to expand their musical range, and instead of tirelessly churning out short blasts of anger and passion, they ventured into four-minute alt rock, touching base on a wide variety of topics – and even recorded a ballad, “Cornerstone,” the finest track on the CD and possibly the best song Turner has ever written, chronicling his troubles accepting a breakup while traveling from bustling pub to bustling pub asking every stray female if he “could call her your name.” The Monkeys, greasy haired rebels burdened by the containment of adolescence into three stanzas and a chorus, are in New York City for two nights at Terminal 5, just as their first two records, 2006’s WHATEVER PEOPLE SAY I AM, THAT’S WHAT I’M NOT and 2007’s FAVOURITE WORST NIGHTMARE, are appearing on lots of best-of-the-decade lists. New Jersey’s Screaming Females open the show.