Music: A Barrel of Monkeys

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Turner's voice is dry and laconic, and he seldom strays from his middle range, but flourishes would only distract from some of the best lyrics ever written by someone who still lives with his parents. On the punk hurricane I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor, he yelps, "Oh, there ain't no love, no, Montagues or Capulets/ Just banging tunes in DJ sets and/ Dirty dance floors and dreams of naughtiness," while the song title You Probably Couldn't See for the Lights but You Were Staring Straight at Me gets a laugh on its own. Turner is particularly good at setting scenes at the top of songs--"Up rolled the riot van/ And sparked excitement in the boys/ But the policemen look annoyed/ Perhaps these are ones they should avoid"--and with each couplet he swings between disgust at and tolerance of the boozy, materialistic and louche world around him. On the standout A Certain Romance, Turner looks around the pub and begins, "Oh they might wear classic Reeboks/ Or knackered Converse/ Or tracky bottoms tucked in socks/ But all of that's what the point is not/ The point's that there isn't no romance around there." But by the end of the song, he admits that a lot of those hopeless, materialistic and thoroughly sauced people are his friends and that "They might overstep the line/ But you just cannot get angry in the same way."

Whatever People Say I Am is the sound of smart kids doing stupid things, with a dawning recognition that maybe life has more to offer than drinking and hooking up. Perhaps the best thing about it is that it has no interest in speaking to anyone over 30. It's great for family dynamics that parents and kids can listen to Coldplay together, but it's a terrible thing for rock 'n' roll, which needs rebellion to survive. (Ever wonder why hip-hop is doing so well?) Parents will be freaked by Turner's wry narration of a life that could go either way, but kids will hear someone speaking their language, if not their dialect.