100 Best Albums of the 2000s: Arctic Monkeys, 'Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not'

100 Best Albums of the 2000s

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

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Now this was one strange Brit-pop success story: Where were the fashion statements and model girlfriends? It turned out that all the Monkeys needed to conquer the world was scrappy, lager-fueled tunes about being young and bored in a bleak steel town. Alex Turner sang about waiting all week for Saturday night, only to strike out with the same local girls he bombed with last week. Thanks to Turner's big bag of creaky melodies and the band's snaggletoothed guitar attack, even America couldn't resist pub-punk gems like the raging, sexy "I Bet You Look Good on the Dance Floor."

Related:
• Rolling Stone's Original 2006 Review

• Video: Arctic Monkeys Perform "Don't Sit Down..." on 'Letterman'

• Rolling Stone's 100 Best Songs of the Aughts: Arctic Monkeys' "I Bet You Look Good On The Dance Floor"