The band, fronted by an uncharacteristically long haired Alex Turner, whose face throughout the transmission is rarely seen, appears in a large room as if were they on stage, lighted by stage-lights, but apparently not surrounded by anything
but guitar-racks. They kick off with the first song which the lyrics reveal to be 'Pretty Visitors' (tracklist off of here, I reckon it's credible). A very sombre, gloomy, almost schizophrenic tune, with a haunted but nonetheless gloating feel to it. Next up comes 'Crying Lightning', which has already been played on BBC Radio 1 and leaked here and there (Youtube). A slightly more recognizable Monkeys tune, yet still slower than the pace one connects with most of their songs. The predominant tempo on Humbug seems to be more akin to that of 'Fake Tales of San Francisco' and the like, and both tracks we've heard so far include pretty big shifts in mood within the songs themselves.Next up is what's later revealed as 'Potion Approaching', which is a real gloomy song again. You really sense that this band, and Turner especially, has grown from the teenish stories of hookers in Sheffield and blockheaded girls that they'd still take home and screw anyway. This one here is very tough-molded with an edgy, heavy guitar-riff carrying it through. It ends abruptly with Turner exclaiming: "would you like me to build us a go-kart?" followed by Helders throwing his stick leading the song to a halt.
Then comes the cover of 'Red Right Hand', which is originally a song by Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds, that A.M. have played regularly throughout the last year or so, and which will be one of the inevitable bonus tracks on the Japanese edition of Humbug. There's a lot of organ, not only in this one, but in many of the tracks, which bears resemblance mostly to '505' off Favourite Worst Nightmare, which back then was remarkable exactly because of its unusual instrumentation. It appears now that the organ is gonna be a regular Monkeys fixture, and as they rarely do playbacks and samples, it seems they're gonna have to either rearrange some of the songs live, or bring along a fifth man to do the organ bits, as Turner was show without a guitar throughout Red Right Hand, while both organ, bass and guitar were present.
Close-ups of cymbals and pedals indicate a ballad now, but the calm intro gives way to a more energetic albeit much less dark song, that is later through the lyrics revealed to be 'Secret Door'. The organ is still there, as well as the backdrop of a girl's eyes that has been recurring throughout the transmission. A very pretty track this one, definitely my favourite so far, much akin to the likes of 'A Certain Romance' and 'Only Ones Who Know' of the first and second album respectively. Turner keeps singing about "fools on parade" in a very recognizable fashion. The song ends, and frets are played to indicate a new one's coming up, but nothing happens, and that's it.
Put short, it seems the Monkeys have really matured, and you really feel that almost 2½ years have passed since Favourite Worst Nightmare. And that's a lot when you're only 23, already releasing your third album and heralded as the frontmen of indie-garage-revival. Looks like the baboon pups have become real grown-up monkeys, huh?
