Side projects spawn intensity. Those little passions will have no real ripple or effect on the wider body of work. For Arctic Monkeys frontman Alex Turner, The Last Shadow Puppets is an opportunity to express what he cannot with the chart-topping band. For Miles Kane, it is a chance to bask in the glories of liberated artistic light and pen a few hits himself. For one it is creative flow, for the other, it is an opportunity to eclipse their work elsewhere. The Age of the Understatement is an opportunity for both Sheffield-born musicians to shake up their style. They do not let an opportunity like this slip through their fingers and come out the other end with an album of intensity and interest.
When your head is elsewhere yet there are things to be done, stick The Age of the Understatement on. It is of a quick enough pace to centre the mind and hone your focus. This is thanks to the spaghetti western-like clangs of its title track. Open on rallying cries and racing horses. These are the electric guitar works which would feel well-suited to the open plains of the desert, roaring cowboys and six-shooters. Yet with contemporary lyrics from Turner, there is a chance of modernity still. It is bridged over as The Coral would do with their work a decade later on Sea of Mirrors. Hold those proverbial horses though. It is not all a flurry of charm. Standing Next to Me takes some getting into as Kane takes charge with vocal duties. Turner is dropped to backing vocalist and steals the spotlight. It is a matter of who you prefer as a frontman at some points, but with all roads leading to the quality Turner instils, it is hard not to feel the best bits of The Age of the Understatement is where it becomes the one-man show from the Arctic Monkeys frontman.
It defeats the purpose of this pairing and yet it whines on with grand quality. Flickers of The Libertines can be heard on this one. A couple of lads enjoying themselves in the studio. But there is quality within this The Last Shadow Puppets release. Calm Like You is a convincing occasion which comes as quickly as it goes. Short, sweet tracks are the aim of the game here. Only the Truth and My Mistakes Were Made for You get to grips with the simplicity of honesty found within. The Last Shadow Puppets are keen to recall misguided steps and open them up to honest interpretation. It settles nice enough but cannot quite escape an Arctic Monkeys sound in its best moments. At its worst, it is shoehorned and typical noises from the Western films of the 1960s.
But then the beat kicks in and becomes a formidable accompaniment. An enjoyable experience without question. Black Plant is easy to love. All the grand sweeps of good music can be heard within it. A little flourish of brass here, a stunned singer trying to pick up the pieces there, it comes together well. The Last Shadow Puppets certainly have their high points, and it comes from the few instrumental tricks they have figured work well for them. In My Room is another track to pluck from this one, a bold and gutsy piece which feels operatic in sections. There is a lovely, summery feel to those latter tracks which makes The Age of the Understatement worth listening to. Unrefined patches of what Turner would later lean into with Arctic Monkeys, just without the bravado and brass here.
