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Arctic Monkeys: AM

Jon Young, Spin, 5 September 2013

EARLY EXPOSURE to the fifth Arctic Monkeys record might betray a few symptoms of Pretentious Artiste Syndrome – frontman Alex Turner has name-checked Dr. Dre and Aaliyah in the run-up to AM, boasting that the U.K.-spawned, now California-based quartet has injected elements of hip-hop and R&B into its malleable guitar rock. But thankfully, the result is far from crude carpetbagging. Truth is, Turner has always been eclectic, spilling torrents of syllable-crammed lyrics over sharp melody lines like an MC with a buzzing head full of ideas; hell, his side project, Last Shadow Puppets, even delivered a credible cover of Rihanna's 'SOS' back in 2008.

Total word count of piece: 411

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