The Last Shadow Puppets : My Mistakes Were Made for You

The Last Shadow Puppets is a side project of Arctic Monkeys' front man Alex Turner and Miles Kane of The Rascals. It's a bit of a departure from the pop-punk stylings of the Monkeys, concentrating instead on the bombastic orchestral pop of the late 60's, early 70's, like Shirley Bassey, Scott Walker and early David Bowie.

It's a great album, yet another in a long line of fantastic albums from 2008. The songs are expertly crafted and wonderfully orchestrated, with swooping strings and punching horns. Plus, there's Alex's nifty little South Yorkshire accent, which is endearingly strong, coming through in spades on every song.

With so many great songs, it's tough to choose, but I went with "My Mistakes Were Made for You", because I think it embodies most of what the band claims they were shooting for. The lyrics are dark and moody, there's a groovy little backbeat, and the horns add just a touch of class while the soaring strings expertly propel the drama.  Actually, it reminds me a little of "The Windmills of Your Mind" by Michel Legrand or something from a John Barry soundtrack, both of which are fine things to be reminded of.

You can find "My Mistakes Were Made for You" on The Last Shadow Puppets' excellent freshman release, The Age of the Understatement.  What's really amazing, given the depth and grandeur of the music is that these guys were like 22 years old.  It's one thing to put out a great rock album.  It's another to put together such a phenomenally orchestrated masterpiece.

[You can listen to The Last Shadow Puppets' "My Mistakes Were Made for You" by navigating to the post "Song074" and clicking or right-clicking on the title or the link.]

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