Favourite Worst Nightmare is the second studio album by English rock band Arctic Monkeys, released on 23 April 2007 by Domino Recording Company. Recorded in East London's Miloco Studios with producers James Ford and Mike Crossey, the album was preceded by the release of lead single "Brianstorm" on 2 April 2007. It was the band’s first album with new bassist Nick O'Malley, replacing their previous bassist Andy Nicholson, who left the band shortly before the North American tour of the band's debut studio album, Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not (2006). 

In comparison to their debut album, the album is considered more musically ambitious, with ambient sounds and expanded drum rhythms being introduced. As with their debut, Favourite Worst Nightmare was a widespread critical success, with critics highlighting the band's new emotional depth and frontman Alex Turner's matured songwriting. NME and Uncut ranked it the second-best album of 2007, while Dutch publication OOR named it the best of 2007. Retrospectively, the album is considered the start of the band's change of sound with each of their albums after their debut.

In its first week of release, the album sold over 227,000 copies in the United Kingdom, going straight to number one on the UK Albums Chart. "Brianstorm" and "Fluorescent Adolescent" were also both hits on the UK Singles Chart, with the former reaching number two on the chart. In the United States, the album debuted at number seven on the Billboard 200, selling approximately 44,000 copies in its first week. The album has since been certified 4× platinum in the UK. It was nominated for the 2007 Mercury Prize and won Best British Album at the 2008 Brit Awards.

Title and cover art
The album's title came from the lyrics to the song "D is for Dangerous", the third song featured on the album. The band said they also considered naming the album Lesbian Wednesdays, Gordon Brown, or Gary Barlow. In an interview with NME, Nick O'Malley announced several songs including "D is for Dangerous" and "Balaclava". The tracks "The Bakery" and "Plastic Tramp" also mentioned in the NME interview did not make it onto the album, but were later released as B-sides on the "Fluorescent Adolescent" single. The track "Leave Before the Lights Come On" was also rumoured for inclusion, but did not make the final cut.

Half of the album's songs were debuted at concerts before the release of the album. The album was recorded quickly as the band wanted to start touring and play the songs.

The album's cover art features a black-and-white photograph of a house in the Garston district of Liverpool, with colourful cartoonish images visible through its windows. This marks the second consecutive time the band used a photograph taken in Liverpool as an album cover, following their debut album Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not.

Musical style
The music on Favourite Worst Nightmare has been characterised as post-punk revival, indie rock, garage rock, and post-Britpop. In comparison to the band's debut album Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not, the album has been described as "very, very fast and very, very loud", being seen as "more ambitious, heavier...and with a fiercely bright production". Reflecting the band's travels around the world more than the local stories of the first record, Favourite Worst Nightmare is a "faster, meaner" album. The album arguably has influences from The Smiths – "twanging, quasi-ambient backdrops...and Turner's voice [...] crooning like Morrissey or Richard Hawley." Matt Helders said "James was DJing loads in the evening so we'd go out and [...] have a dance." As a result, the drum rhythms of Helders and bassist Nick O'Malley have drawn comparisons to the Eighties funk band ESG. The band's love of classic films also influenced their new style. For example, the organ at the beginning of the album's final track, "505" replicates Ennio Morricone's soundtrack for The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (where Angel Eyes enters before the final standoff).

Critical reception

Like with the band’s debut album, Favourite Worst Nightmare has received widespread critical acclaim since its release. It has a score of 82 on Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100, based on 38 reviews.

In a 5-star review, The Daily Express described it as "a shockingly good release that just gets better, faster and stronger with each listen", while The Guardian said it had "successfully negotiated the daunting task of following up the biggest-selling debut album in British history" and stated that the second half of the album was the stronger half, noting the similarity to Morrissey in "Fluorescent Adolescent" whilst criticising the opening tracks, "Brianstorm" in particular. Their progression was also highlighted with The Guardian saying "if you removed everything from the album except Matt Helders' drumming, it would still be a pretty gripping listen", and The Observer praising the new sounds on the album referencing the "piercing, melodic guitar by Jamie Cook" and "where Turner reveals the other weapons in his armoury" when referring to Alex Turner's progression. Pitchfork Media noticed the "new emotional depth" of tracks such as "Do Me a Favour", "Only Ones Who Know" and "505", which were also commonly cited by most other critics as being amongst the highlights. NME and Uncut ranked it as the second-best album of 2007. Dutch publication OOR named it the best of 2007.

Jacob Stolworthy of The Independent reviewed the album on its 10th anniversary in 2017, saying, "Favourite Worst Nightmare was the first sign that Arctic Monkeys would change up their sound with each new record in as drastic a fashion as they wished [...] If their debut defined a generation, this record shaped the band's future in a manner more mature, sexy and - just like the party depicted in the rowdy track 'This House Is a Circus' - berserk as f*ck."

Commercial performance
In its first week of release, Favourite Worst Nightmare sold 227,993 copies, emulating Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not in going straight to number one on the UK Albums Chart, albeit selling 130,000 copies fewer than the band's record-breaking debut. The first two singles from the album, "Brianstorm" and "Fluorescent Adolescent", were both UK top-10 hits. The album's first day sales of 85,000 outsold the rest of the top 20 combined, while all 12 tracks from the album entered the top 200 of the UK Singles Chart. By September 2022, 1,200,000 copies of the album had been sold in the UK; it was certified 4× Platinum in 2022. The album was nominated for the Mercury Prize in 2007 and won Best British Album at the BRIT Awards the following year.

In the United States, the album debuted at number 7 on the Billboard 200, selling around 44,000 copies in its first week and become the band's first top-10 album there. The album also achieved top-10 debuts in 12 other countries, including Australia, Canada, Ireland, France, Japan, Mexico, and New Zealand.

Track listing

Bonus video
 The music video for "Brianstorm" was included as a bonus with iTunes pre-orders of Favourite Worst Nightmare.

Personnel
Credits adapted from liner notes.

Arctic Monkeys
 Alex Turner – lead vocals; guitar (1–11), keyboards (12)
 Jamie Cook – guitar (1–5, 7–12); backing vocals (1)
 Matt Helders – drums (1–5, 7–12), backing vocals (1–5, 8, 10–11)
 Nick O'Malley – bass guitar; backing vocals (1, 3–5, 8, 10)

Additional musicians
 James Ford – guitar 
 Miles Kane – guitar 

Production
 James Ford – production, mixing 
 Mike Crossey – production, mixing 
 Alan Moulder – mixing 
 George Marino – mastering

Artwork
 Juno – art direction and design, illustrations, booklet photography
 Matthew Cooper – layout
 Joseph Bramhall – illustrations
 Graphique Club – illustrations
 Drew Millward – illustrations
 Al Heighton – illustrations
 Anne-Marie Moore – illustrations
 Tobias – illustrations
 de5ign4 – spray can murals
 Matt Goodfellow – photography

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Decade-end charts

Certifications

Release history

References

External links

2007 albums
Albums produced by James Ford (musician)
Arctic Monkeys albums
Domino Recording Company albums
Warner Records albums
Brit Award for British Album of the Year
Favourite Worst Nightmare는 잉글랜드의 인디 록 밴드 악틱 몽키즈의 두 번째 정규앨범이다. 전세계에 공식 발매를 하기전에 2007년 4월 18일에 일본에서 첫 발매를 하였다. 동런던 밀로코 스튜디오에서 프로듀서 제임스 포드와 마이크 크로시와 녹음한 싱글앨범 Brianstorm이 2007년 4월 16일에 먼저 발매되었다.

이 앨범은 발매 첫 주만에 220,000장이 팔렸고,Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not처럼 영국 음반 차트 1위로 바로 올라갔고, 그들의 데뷔 앨범 기록보다 100,000장을 더 팔았다. 첫 두 개의 싱글앨범 Brianstorm과 Fluorescent Adolescent도 UK Top Hits에 올랐다.

Favourite Worst Nightmare'''의 첫 판매날은 나머지 Top 20 차트에 있던 앨범들을 합친것보다 많은 85,000장을 팔았고, 앨범에 있는 12곡 모두 UK Singles Chart 200에 올라갔다.

미국에서는 첫주에 44,000장을 팔면서 빌보드 차트 7위에 올라갔다. 앨범은 이후로 영국에서 2번의 플래티넘을 차지했고 2007년에 머큐리 상 후보에 올랐다. 2008년 브릿 어워드에서 최고의 영국 앨범상을 수상했다.

 스타일의 변화 
대뷔 앨범Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not과 비교해서, Favourite Worst Nightmare는 "매우, 매우 빠르고 매우, 매우 시끄럽다", 그리고 "더욱 야심적이고, 무거워졌으며 사납게 밝아졌다" 라고 묘사되었다. 첫 녹음의 이야기보다는 밴드가 세계여행을 다니던것이 반명이 된FWN(Favourite Worst Nightmare)는 "빨라지고, 의미가 담긴" 앨범이다. 앨범은 The Smiths에서 영향을 받았고 비음이 섞인 억양과 잔잔한 배경으로 터너의 목소리는 리처드 하울리와 모리세이 같이 부드럽게 부른다. 밴드의 드러머 맷 헬더스가 말하길, "코너 맥브라드의 엄청빠르고 엄청나게 부드러운 기타 스윕과 매우 강한 C-tuned 기타 리프가 이 앨범에 많은 영향을 주었다고 하였다. 결과적으로, 헬더의 드럼 리듬과 베이시트 닉 오말리는 80년대 펑크 밴드 ESG와 비교되기도 했다. 밴드가 좋아하던 고전 영화 역시도 그들의 새로운 음악 스타일에 영향을 주었다. 예를 들어, 앨범의 마지막 곡 "505"의 시작 부분에서 나오는 오르간은 석양의 무법자(Angel Eyes가 마지막 대치에 들어서기전에 나타나는 부분)에 나온 엔니오 모리코네의 사운드트랙에서 따왔다.

 앨범의 역사 
앨범 타이틀 "Favourite Worst Nightmare"는 앨범의 3번째 수록곡 "D is for Dangerous"에서 따왔다. 밴드가 말하길, 그들은 앨범의 제목을 Lesbian Wednesdays, 고든 브라운 아니면 게리 바로우라고 지을 것을 고려하였다고 한다.

영국의 음악 주간지 NME와 인터뷰에서 , 닉 오말리는 타이틀에 "D is for Dangerous" 와 "Balaclava"가 포함되어 있다고 알렸다. 트랙 "The Bakery" 와 "Plastic Tramp" 역시도 NME 인터뷰에서 언급이 되었는데, 앨범에 수록되지는 않했지만, 후에 싱글 앨범 "Fluorescent Adolescent"에 B-사이드로 발매됐다. 트랙 "Leave Before the Lights Come On"도 포함될것이라는 루머가 있었지만 수록되지 않았다.

앨범 수록 12 곡중 6 곡이 앨범 발매전 공연으로 알려졌다. 앨범은 밴드가 밖에 나가 다시 곡을 연주하고 싶어서 빠르게 녹음했다고 하였다.

 평가 Favourite Worst Nightmare는 발매가 된 이후 곳곳에서 찬사를 받았다. Metacritic (리뷰를 통해서 100점을 표준 점수로 하여 평점을 한다)은 82점을 매겼고, In a 5-star review, 데일리 익스프레스는 앨범을 "듣기에 더욱 좋아지고 빨라지고, 강해저 충격을 먹을정도로 좋다" 라고 묘사했으며, 반면 가디언은 이 앨범을 두고 "영국 역사에서 가장 많이 판 앨범의 벅찬 일을 성공적으로 넘었다" 말하며, 앨범의 후반부는 강한 후반이지만, 특별하게 첫 트랙 Brianstorm을 비평을 한 반면에 "Fluorescent Adolescent"에서 모리세이와 닮은 점은 없다고 평가했다. 가디언의 다음 언급도 주목이 되어는데 "만약 당신들이 앨범에서 멧 헬더의 드럼을 제외하여도, 이것은 여전히 듣기 좋을것이다",라고 하였다. 옵저버는 새로워진 앨범의 사운드에 대해서 주석으로 "제이미 쿡의 날카로운 기타 멜로디와 터너가 그의 무기고에서 드러낸 다른 무기"라고 평하며 알렉스 터너의 향상을 확인하게 했다. 피치포크 미디어는 비평가들이 많이 인용을 한 "Do Me A Favour", "Only Ones Who Know" 그리고 "505"에 대해서 "새로운 감정의 깊이" 라고 주목을 했다.

 트랙 리스트 

 보너스 비디오 
 Brianstorm의 뮤직 비디오는 Favourite Worst Nightmare''의 아이튠즈 선주문자에 한해 보너스로 포함되었다.

싱글 앨범
"Brianstorm" (2007년 4월 2일, 도미노 레코드에서 발매) #2
"Fluorescent Adolescent" (2007년 7월 9일, 도미노 레코드에서 발매) #5
"Teddy Picker" (2007년 12월 3일, 도미노 레코드에서 발매) #20

녹음 
악틱 몽키즈
 알렉스 터너 – 리드 보컬, 리드와 리듬 기타, 키보드
 제이미 쿡 – 리드와 리듬 기타
 닉 오말리 – 베이스 기타, 백킹 보컬
 멧 헬더스 – 드럼, 탬버린, 보컬

추가된 연주자
 제임스 포드 – "Only Ones Who Know"에 추가 기타 연주
 마일스 케인 – "505"에 추가 기타 연주

차트 순위

발매 정보

참조

외부 링크 
 티저 웹사이트 
 Video tour of Favourite Worst Nightmare artwork house

2007년 음반
악틱 몽키즈의 음반