The Age of the Understatement (2008)

The Age of the Understatement is the debut studio album by English supergroup the Last Shadow Puppets, released on 15 April 2008 by Domino Recording Company. It was written between band co-frontmen Alex Turner and Miles Kane in 2006. It was produced in Paris and London by fellow member James Ford, featuring orchestral arrangements composed by Owen Pallett, and performed by the London Metropolitan Orchestra. The album artwork features a 1962 black and white picture, by photographer Sam Haskins, depicting a young woman, named Gill, sitting on the floor.

The Age of the Understatement is a stylistic deviation from the indie rock sound found in Turner and Kane's previous work with the Arctic Monkeys and The Little Flames, respectively. It mainly features genres that include Symphonic pop, pop rock, and baroque pop. It also draws influence from French pop and film scores of the 1960s. The album was released to generally positive reviews. It was nominated for the 2008 Mercury Prize, and became the band's first number-one in the UK. Following its release, the album was promoted by the singles "The Age of the Understatement", "Standing Next to Me" and "My Mistakes Were Made for You", as well as a European and North American tour and multiple television appearances.

Background and recording

Turner and Kane first collaborated musically on the song "505", from Arctic Monkeys' second album Favourite Worst Nightmare and on "Fluorescent Adolescent" B-sides "The Bakery" and "Plastic Tramp." At first, they had joked with the idea of forming a band, saying that it would be great to do something similar to Scott Walker's Jackie. It was during those recording sessions in 2006, when they decided to start a project together. During the mixing of the album, they wrote their first song together, "The Chamber", which was followed by "Meeting Place" and "I Don't Like you Anymore". Although they already had written some songs each, most were done collaboratively. Those songs were written during weekend breaks, between their native cities of Sheffield and Liverpool, with one playing chords while the other paced around the room scribbling on a pad. They recalled already writing songs backstage while Kane accompanied Arctic Monkeys on tour in early 2007. By April 2007, the writing process was almost finished, and they had already several demos, the process continued until July, when they spent a weekend demoing at The Rascals' rehearsal space in Liverpool.

In August 2007, the band began recording sessions at Black Box Studios in Maine-et-Loire, France. Fellow member James Ford produced the record. The album was mainly recorded over two weeks. Turner and Kane provided the vocals, and played bass and guitar in all songs, with Ford playing drums, mainly using live takes. The process was simple with just Turner, Kane, Ford and engineer Jimmy Robertson participating in the sessions. The band lived in the studio while recording, in their free time Turner and Kane would ride their bikes through the countryside, listen to old records, watch The Pink Panther film series, and have dance parties. For the instrumental arrangements, the band first contacted Nico Muhly, but he passed, and recommended friend Owen Pallett instead. Pallett was contacted by Laurence Bell, head of Domino, who asked him to meet Turner in Toronto. Pallet said of that time, "We took a cab to my southern Toronto prison and we listened to some David Axelrod records and talked about music. I listened to the tracks he'd recorded, and told him my ideas." The band was very specific in how the strings should sound, with Turner saying, "We wanted it to be more soundtrack and widescreen than, like, Nick Drake, who has more of a foresty, autumnal sound when using strings." Pallett tried to "flesh [the ideas] all out," and described it as "the most effortless project I've ever worked on." By November he was working on the score which took him a "couple of weeks," and recorded his parts at Arcade Fire's studio in Canada. He flew to London in December to conduct, and record, the 22-piece London Metropolitan Orchestra, at British Grove Studios. Track "Separate and Ever Deadly", was written after the sessions in France. Originally thought of as a B-side, it replaced another song, and was later recorded at RAK Studios in London. Mixing took place in January 2008. During the recording of the album Turner and Kane hired a documentary film-making team, Luke Seomore and Joseph Bull, to capture the story of the project. The first people to hear the album outside the band, were the rest of the members from Arctic Monkeys, Turner was nervous at first, and described the situation as if a partner had discovered an "affair tape," nevertheless, the band loved the album, specifically the opening track.