Arctic Monkeys – Straighten the Rudder Review

Acoustic renditions of some club-thumping tracks are always a treat. How artists can inform and interpret their works when up against it or hoping to crack through with some new thought is all part of the creative process. At least, it is for Arctic Monkeys. Straighten the Rudder precedes bootleg wonder Imaginary Highways but serves much the same purpose. A collection of covers, bits and pieces from history. Lost audio kept alive on Soundcloud. Reckless Serenade sets the scene with incredible power. Isolate the vocals from Alex Turner and put him in a room with an acoustic guitar, an endless list of covers to flex the writing style, to see where it takes him next, and wonders like this appear. Discarded because a proper release is not on their radar, but collected by fans and put out there for all to hear. 

And rightly so. Straighten the Rudder is an exceptional compilation of these acoustic beauties. Crying Lightning benefits from this simple approach, the neat piano working its way through and offering a well-needed additional layer. The same occurs for an exceptional cover of Only You Know from Dion. It already inspired Jarvis Cocker with Don’t Let Him Waste Your Time, so a cover from Sheffield legend Turner should be no surprise. Those early tracks, No Buses included, highlight the strength Turner holds as a vocalist more than anything. A few variations from wherever you source Straighten the Rudder may crop up, with omitted AM singles cropping up on a few. Snap Out of It is certainly worth hearing in this instrumental form.  

With these acoustic appropriations of heady guitar music and indie blitz comes a forthright romance, which is embedded already in the originals but brought to the front on these Straighten the Rudder selections. A handful of these tracks were lifted over to Imaginary Highways, and there they were paired with all those acoustic beauties from Tranquility Base Hotel and Casino. Hopefully a few from The Car drop out of the blue in the coming years, but until then it feels nice to add an extra layer to already gifted and exciting songs. Turner takes to the Dion cover with such an instinctive respect for the song, and the acoustic beauties which follow are a real and pleasant treat. But this should be no surprise to Arctic Monkeys fans, the band has a constant grasp on their writing style.  

Turner has revealed in the past his best lines come to him at random. It seems to run through Sheffield, those wild and sudden lines which bring about the best of an instrumentalist. For Straighten the Rudder, the high points are those lines. Not because they are the core of the song, but because these feel like the versions where Turner and the band find themselves with gold on their hands. Expose the core of the track and wind on through from there. It marks an exceptional moment each time and sprinkling in a few covers keeps it all fresh. Long live the bootlegs, because those listening in to Straighten the Rudder might just kindle some love for forgotten Arctic Monkeys songs.