| The Age of the Understatement | ||||
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 15 April 2008 (2008-04-15) | |||
| Recorded | August 2007[1] | |||
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| Genre | ||||
| Length | 35:10 | |||
| Label | Domino | |||
| Producer | James Ford | |||
| The Last Shadow Puppets chronology | ||||
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| Singles from The Age of the Understatement | ||||
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The Age of the Understatement is the debut studio album by Englishsupergroupthe Last Shadow Puppets, released on 15 April 2008 byDomino Recording Company. It was written between band co-frontmenAlex Turner andMiles Kane in 2006. It was produced in Paris and London by fellow memberJames Ford, featuring orchestral arrangements composed byOwen Pallett, and performed by theLondon Metropolitan Orchestra. The album artwork features a 1962black and white picture, by photographerSam Haskins, depicting a young woman, named Gill, sitting on the floor.
The Age of the Understatement is a stylistic deviation from the indie rock sound found in Turner and Kane's previous work with theArctic Monkeys andThe Little Flames, respectively. It mainly features genres that includeSymphonic pop,pop rock, andbaroque pop. It also draws influence fromFrench pop andfilm scores of the 1960s. The album was released to generally positive reviews. It was nominated for the 2008Mercury Prize,[2] and became the band's first number-one debut in the UK. Following its release, the album was promoted by the singles "The Age of the Understatement", "Standing Next to Me" and "My Mistakes Were Made for You", as well as a European and North American tour and multiple television appearances.
Turner and Kane first collaborated musically on the song "505", fromArctic Monkeys' second albumFavourite Worst Nightmare and on "Fluorescent Adolescent" B-sides "The Bakery" and "Plastic Tramp." At first, they had joked with the idea of forming a band, saying that it would be great to do something similar toScott Walker'sJackie. It was during those recording sessions in 2006, when they decided to start a project together. During the mixing of the album, they wrote their first song together, "The Chamber",[3] which was followed by "Meeting Place" and "I Don't Like you Anymore".[4] Although they already had written some songs each, most were done collaboratively. Those songs were written during weekend breaks, between their native cities ofSheffield andLiverpool, with one playing chords while the other paced around the room scribbling on a pad.[3] They recalled already writing songs backstage while Kane accompanied Arctic Monkeys on tour in early 2007.[4] By April 2007, the writing process was almost finished,[4] and they had already several demos, the process continued until July, when they spent a weekend demoing atThe Rascals' rehearsal space in Liverpool.[5][6][7][8]
In August 2007, the band began recording sessions at Black Box Studios inMaine-et-Loire, France.[9] Fellow memberJames Ford produced the record.[4] The album was mainly recorded over two weeks. Turner and Kane provided the vocals, and played bass and guitar in all songs, with Ford playing drums, mainly using live takes.[9] The process was simple with just Turner, Kane, Ford and engineer Jimmy Robertson participating in the sessions. The band lived in the studio while recording, in their free time Turner and Kane would ride their bikes through the countryside,[7] listen to old records,[4] watchThe Pink Panther film series, and have dance parties.[3] For the instrumental arrangements, the band first contactedNico Muhly, but he passed, and recommended friendOwen Pallett instead. Pallett was contacted by Laurence Bell, head ofDomino, who asked him to meet Turner inToronto. Pallet said of that time, "We took a cab to my southern Toronto prison and we listened to someDavid Axelrod records and talked about music. I listened to the tracks he'd recorded, and told him my ideas."[10] The band was very specific in how the strings should sound, with Turner saying, "We wanted it to be more soundtrack andwidescreen than, like,Nick Drake, who has more of a foresty, autumnal sound when using strings."[11] Pallett tried to "flesh [the ideas] all out," and described it as "the most effortless project I've ever worked on."[12][13][10] He did the score in a "couple of weeks," and recorded his parts atArcade Fire's studio inCanada.[5] He flew to London in December to conduct, and record, the 22-pieceLondon Metropolitan Orchestra, atBritish Grove Studios.[10][7][14] Track "Separate and Ever Deadly", was written after the sessions in France.[4] Originally thought of as aB-side, it replaced another song, and was later recorded atRAK Studios in London.[15] Mixing took place in January 2008.[9] During the recording of the album Turner and Kane hired a documentary film-making team,Luke Seomore and Joseph Bull, to capture the story of the project.[16] The first people to hear the album outside the band, were the rest of the members from Arctic Monkeys, Turner was nervous at first, and described the situation as if a partner had discovered an "affair tape," nevertheless, the band loved the album, specifically the opening track.[3]
The album was described as being "mid-sixties, pre-psychedelic, epic pop music with period reverb settings,Hammond organs,tremolo guitars, mariachi drum beats, horn sections, rapid strum acoustic guitars, and tasteful orchestral touches."[17] It has been characterised assymphonic pop,[18][19]pop rock,[20] andbaroque pop.[21]
The album has been compared to the works ofJohn Barry,Ennio Morricone,[22]the Zombies,Love,Scott Walker,[17][23]Burt Bacharach,[24] and theJames Bond soundtracks,[22][23] as well as contemporary artists likePulp andBelle and Sebastian.[17] The duo claimed the album was influenced by the music of Walker,Serge Gainsbourg'sHistoire de Melody Nelson,The Electric Prunes'Mass in F Minor, and Morricone'sThe Good, the Bad and the Ugly soundtrack.[25][26][4]
The album art consists of a photo of Gill, an art student fromJohannesburg, photographed bySam Haskins in 1962.[27] The photograph was chosen by Alex Turner, after he saw it in a copy of Haskins' book found byAlexa Chung, his girlfriend at the time, inDover Street Market. Chung, also owned a print of the same image, which she hung in herNew York apartment.[28][29] The band joked that their first idea for the artwork, was to feature both of them in whitepolo necks, with a burning cigarette on top of a piano.[7]
At first, the band thought of calling the albumShadows, which later would become the band name.[9] In the end, the band landed onThe Age of the Understatement. Turner said the title "It's a bit sarcastic because, it's quite a big statement," adding "We're are in this age where people don't do this kind of thing, or don't do it well."[5]
On 20 February 2008, Miles Kane and Alex Turner revealed they would be known as the Last Shadow Puppets and that their album would be titledThe Age of the Understatement and would be released on 21 April 2008. They wanted to release it at the end of 2007 but it wasn't possible.[30] The band played their first ever show inBrooklyn,New York, at Sound Fix Records on 4 March 2008,[31] playing a second gig at theLower East Side's Cake Shop the following night.[32] Their first show in the United Kingdom was a short two song set on 5 April at the Lock Tavern in Camden, London, where they played "Meeting Place" and "Standing Next to Me".[33]
The first single, "The Age of the Understatement", was released the week before on 14 April, with new song "Two Hearts in Two Weeks" and covers ofBilly Fury's "Wondrous Place" andDavid Bowie's "In the Heat of the Morning" —a song previously mentioned by Turner as a favourite—[34] as b-sides.[35] An accompanying music video directed byRomain Gavras, was released three days before. The video was shot mainly inMoscow,Russia, and features the band walking down the city, tanks, a girlice skating, anOrthodox church, and a military choir. Gavras would later describe the shoot as "crazy" saying: "On the other side of the camera, it was a training camp with tanks shooting all the time, totally unsafe."[36][37]
Their second single, "Standing Next to Me", was released on 7 July 2008.[38] On 15 July a music video directed byRichard Ayoade was released. The video, shot inLondon, featured the band performing the song in what resembles to be a television studio accompanied by a group of dancers wearing colored leggings.[39][40] Their third and last single, "My Mistakes Were Made for You", was released on 20 October 2008, and it included live covers ofNancy Sinatra andLee Hazlewood's "Paris Summer", featuringAlison Mosshart, andBurt Bacharach's "My Little Red Book" as b-sides.[41] The corresponding music video, released a month earlier, was shot atPinewood Studios and also directed by Ayoade. The music video shows Turner on a crashed car withAlexa Chung, his then girlfriend. Kane appears later.[42] The video was inspired by Federico Fellini's cult filmToby Dammit.[43]
In June 2008, the band announced their debut world tour, which would start on 19 August of that year.[44] The Puppets and a 16-piece orchestra, played their first tour shows atPortsmouth Guildhall andNew Theatre Oxford, before attendingReading and Leeds Festivals 2008. Kane said the two festival stops would be "our [the band] first proper gigs".[45] Their Leeds set was described byThe Guardian as "a classy offering from the Puppets. But, maybe, that isn't what's needed at a festival on a Friday night".[46] The first leg of the tour ended with a show atThe Olympia inParis on 26 August.[47] The tour restarted in October atCirkus inStockholm, and continued in continental Europe, throughout the rest of the month. Their London and Sheffield shows were generally well received by both fans and critics.[48][49] The band played their last show at theMayan Theater ofLos Angeles on 3 November 2008.[50][51][52]
The band performed on a number of television shows includingLater with Jools Holland,Friday Night with Jonathan Ross, andCanal +'s Concert Privé. On May, they played a four-song setlist forNPR'sWorld Cafe.[53] A month later, the Puppets played a secret set atGlastonbury with Arctic Monkeys'Matt Helders playing drums on "The Age of the Understatement" andJack White playing a guitar solo on "Wondrous Place."[54] On July, the band appeared onBBC Radio 1'sLive Lounge, as mystery guests to honor hostJo Whiley's birthday. They performed "Standing Next to Me" and a cover ofRihanna's "SOS", with Turner rejecting to gender flip the lyrics of the latter, mantaining the original pronouns.[4][55] On September, they performed at the2008 Mercury Prize Awards, and a month later played a show atPhilharmonic Hall, Liverpool as part of theElectric Proms.[56][57]
| Aggregate scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Metacritic | 77/100[58] |
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [19] |
| Entertainment Weekly | B+[59] |
| The Guardian | [60] |
| Mojo | [61] |
| NME | 8/10[62] |
| Pitchfork | 7.7/10[18] |
| Q | [63] |
| Rolling Stone | [64] |
| Spin |  [65] |
| Uncut | [66] |
The Age of the Understatement received largely positive reviews from contemporary music critics. AtMetacritic, which assigns anormalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received anaverage score of 77, based on 25 reviews, which indicates "generally favorable reviews".[58]
Marc Hogan ofPitchfork gave the album a favorable review, stating, "The biggest difference between The Last Shadow Puppets and Turner's main gig is in the lyrics. Though less immediately noticeable than the majestic production, the change in the scale of Turner's songwriting is ultimately more profound." Hogan continues, calling the album "Turner's most impressive album-length statement yet, one that strives, musically and lyrically, for the epic grandeur of an era before GarageBand or MySpace, and avoids lapsing into pretentiousness by dint of its own headlong enthusiasm."[18] On the difference between Turner's projects, Mikael Wood ofSpin, thought the album replaced "the Arctic Monkeys’ circa-now cynicism with old-school romance".[65] Austin Powell ofThe Austin Chronicle praised Pallett's work saying he "deserves equal billing for his album arrangements, which lend The Age of Understatement its epic splendor."[67] On another favorable review, Alex Denney ofDrowned In Sound, said the album represented, "The most ambitious music either musician has assailed" and added "The Age Of The Understatement is as solid an idea in execution as it is in concept; a record unafraid to reach beyond its obvious limitations and produce a swashbuckling end result that might even broaden a few horizons for fans and players alike." Nevertheless, he thought the record was "exaggerating the pomp and rigour of its forebears whilst falling inevitably short of their technical eloquence."[68]Rolling Stone echoed this sentiment, describing the record as a "shameless nostalgia trip" even though it was a "compelling" one.[64]
ForThe Guardian, Sam Wolfson, found the record to be an intimate one, "despite the grandness of the music", and highlighted Turner and Kane's vocal performances.[69] For the same publication,Alexis Petridis, was less complimentary, pointing out that some tracks ambled down a "drearily well-trodden path" while also praising Turner's lyrics, noting his usual "witty-but-prosaic" writing, turned into something more opaque, but without "sacrificing sharpness".[70] Bud Scoppa ofPaste, noted that the album would not got over that well with Arctic Monkeys fans, but praised Turner, "for unleashing his inner Bowie and embracing artifice with such nerve and verve."[71]
The Age of the Understatement debuted at number one on theUK Albums Charts, where it sold 51,186 copies in the first week.[72] In April 2016, the record was certified Platinum by theBritish Phonographic Industry.[73] As of February 2022 the album has sold 337,243 copies in the UK.[74] In the United States, the album debuted at number 111, on theBillboard 200 chart,[75] and number nine onBillboard Independent Albums.[76] It has sold 51,000 copies in the US as of March 2016.[77]
All lyrics are written byAlex Turner andMiles Kane.
| No. | Title | Lead vocals | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "The Age of the Understatement" | Kane and Turner | 3:07 |
| 2. | "Standing Next to Me" | Kane with Turner | 2:18 |
| 3. | "Calm Like You" | Turner | 2:26 |
| 4. | "Separate and Ever Deadly" | Kane and Turner | 2:38 |
| 5. | "The Chamber" | Turner with Kane | 2:37 |
| 6. | "Only the Truth" | Kane and Turner | 2:44 |
| 7. | "My Mistakes Were Made for You" | Turner | 3:04 |
| 8. | "Black Plant" | Turner with Kane | 3:59 |
| 9. | "I Don't Like You Anymore" | Kane and Turner | 3:05 |
| 10. | "In My Room" | Kane and Turner | 2:29 |
| 11. | "Meeting Place" | Kane and Turner | 3:55 |
| 12. | "Time Has Come Again" | Turner | 2:22 |
| Total length: | 35:10 | ||
Different versions of the album list the last two tracks in a different manner. Catalog number WIGCD208 lists track No. 11 and No. 12 as "The Meeting Place" and "Time Has Come Again" respectively while catalog number WIGCD208S lists them as "Meeting Place" and "The Time Has Come Again".
The Last Shadow Puppets
Production
Orchestrations
Artwork
Weekly charts[edit]
| Year-end charts[edit]
|
| Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom (BPI)[99] | Platinum | 300,000[98] |
| Region | Date | Label | Format | Catalog |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Japan[100] | 15 April 2008 | Hostess | CD | HSE-10065 |
| Germany[101] | 18 April 2008 | Domino Records | CD | |
| United Kingdom[102] | 21 April 2008 | Domino Records | CD | WIGCD2008 |
| LP | WIGLP208 | |||
| Australia[103] | 21 April 2008 | EMI Music Australia | CD | |
| Europe[104] | 25 April 2008 | CD | WIGCD208 | |
| United States[105] | 6 May 2008 | Domino Records | CD | CDNO181 |
| Brazil | 25 August 2008 | EMI Music Brazil | CD |
an ambitious effort that melded '60s rock, agile strings, and baroque pop
