It’s the 17th years of Arctic Monkeys debut album “Whatever People Think I Am, That’s What I’m Not” and instead of the usual review of songs, we decided to de-code the cover artwork for you.

The strangest kind of fame is album cover fame. Not the type for designing or photographing an iconic record cover, but actually being a widely unknown face that exists in countless people's homes.

The smoking gentleman on this beautiful album cover has been carved into our mind. Let’s have a look at the story behind it.

The most infamous unknown face in modern music - Chris McClure (now the frontman of the Sheffield band The Violet May), probably had no idea he'd become an icon for Indie folks when that photo was taken.

While working on the album, the band decided that they wanted a portrayal of ‘a guy on hid night out’ for their artwork. The bassist of the band, Andy Nicholson called the 19-year old Chris up and asked him if he would do it and of course he agreed.

At that time he was quite unaware that he was going to be the face of their album. He just went out with a couple of gals to a bar and met up with a photographer there. The photographer gave him a wad of cash and the only instruction he’d gotten was - “Go out and get drunk – come back after midnight.” He sure did make the most of the night and arrived back at 2am. There he met up with the photographer again at a venue below the bar. They got him further drunk, and started taking the pictures. In the middle of the shoot he grabbed a cigarette and there you go - the iconic cover was created and the band loved the results.

This cover represents the whole album perfectly. Each song can somehow be co-related to the cover and that is the beauty of it. The band form Sheffield - Arctic Monkeys did receive criticism for reinforcing the idea that smoking is OKAY. But the band and their manager both countered by saying that from the image it is quite visible that smoking is not doing the bloke a lot of good.

As for the songs both their UK #1 singles are the highlights here namely After The Sun Goes Down and I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor, among the 13 tracks.   This album is available on vinyl at @drocer.record.

Release date: 23^rd January 2006

Genre: Alternative, Alt Rock

Reviewed by Kinjal Gosar

Kinjal Gosar is the Founder of Drocer Record, an online Vinyl Record Store based in Mumbai and Navi Mumbai. She is a Rock head and a vinyl collector herself. They also have their Demo set up at Adagio, Bandra. Drocer Record is your one-stop shop for all your vinyl record needs. Our aim is to spread the joy of listening to music by transporting you to another world. We sell records of all genres – new and pre-loved, speakers, amps and audio solutions, cleaning solutions, Hi Fi Audio Solutions, Vinyl Accessories, and a lot more. www.drocerrecord.com