The Arctic Monkeys are the most promising UK acts finding their way into my collection. This album is superior to countrymen Franz Ferdinand and Bloc Party. The radio single “I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor” is one of the album’s highlights and representative of the brash teenage type theme. I don’t think you can make a career out of it, but it works for this album. Hear them on Morning Becomes Eclectic.

I’ve been waiting to post this until I finished The World Is Flat. Until recently, the Arctic Monkeys music only existed online. So why did they succeed? Not because they were on the radio and MTv and shoved down everyone’s throats so many times that people decided it must be good if they heard it that so often. People had access to the music, listened, decided they liked it, and passed it on to their friends. The buzz got big enough, and they got a record deal. While there are going to be problems with the flat world, the state of music won’t be one, if the Arctic Monkeys are any indication.