100 Best Albums
- 9 SEPT 2013
- 12 Songs
- AM · 2013
- Favourite Worst Nightmare · 2007
- AM · 2013
- AM · 2013
- AM · 2013
- AM · 2013
- AM · 2012
- Suck It and See · 2011
- AM · 2013
- Humbug (Bonus Track Version) · 2009
Essential Albums
- 100 Best Albums AM feels like the record Arctic Monkeys had been building up to for the preceding half-decade. There was a sense within the group that their 2007 second album, Favourite Worst Nightmare, had been rushed and the Sheffield quartet began recalibrating how they went about things. An exploration in new sounds and textures followed, with psychedelic-tinged desert rock on 2009’s Humbug and muscular riffs and powerful grooves on 2011’s Suck It and See. It was an approach that reached a glorious culmination in 2013 on AM. An arena tour playing second fiddle to The Black Keys in the US in 2012 had seen Alex Turner and co spend their shows trying to win over disinterested crowds and the stint instilled in them a desire to make people dance. It was with this in mind that they entered writing sessions in Los Angeles and Joshua Tree, California to begin work on their fifth album. There was a boldness at play too, a willingness to move away from the sound of a band playing together in a room and combine ’70s, Black Sabbath-style riffs with the sleek production of the Dr. Dre records they had bonded over as teenagers. Out of that emerged the most forward-thinking record of their career, a mesmerising blend of slick, rhythmic rock ’n’ roll with an R&B swing to it. It was a delicate balancing act, a melding of two sonic styles executed to perfection. No wonder “Do I Wanna Know?” was both album opener and the record’s chief calling card. Over its four and a half minutes, it was a flawless demonstration of everything that AM was about: soulful hooks and spiky riffs set to a beat that sounded both brawny and minimalist. Across AM’s 12 songs, there were dynamic shifts but the sonic palette remained broadly the same: Ziggy Stardust-era Bowie as rewired by Timbaland on “Arabella”, yearning indie rock meets hip-hop restraint on “Why’d You Only Call Me When You’re High?”, swirling, nocturnal balladeering on “No. 1 Party Anthem” and soulful future-disco on “Knee Socks”. Released in September 2013, AM took Arctic Monkeys to another level, selling over four million copies and becoming their most successful US album. The days of support tours were over. At the time, it felt like a second debut, the sound of a band discovering a new way forward. “It rebooted the whole thing, didn’t it?” Alex Turner told Apple Music in 2022. “At least in that it showed you that you could continue. I remember feeling as though there’s something about this record that’s just like the first record, and leaning on that thought: ‘Now it’s going to be OK.’ Going into that period [the making of Humbug, Suck it and See and AM], it felt almost as if it didn’t have anywhere to go. But after those three records, it felt like it could go anywhere.” In fact, it was actually the end of something, as if AM was a sonic vision realised so magnificently that the quartet were put off the idea of ever revisiting it. Perhaps it showed them that each record should have its own distinct sense of adventure. It certainly proved that lightning can strike twice. Arctic Monkeys had already made one of the best debut albums of all time. Here, they created their second masterpiece.
- Back in 2006, Arctic Monkeys were cast as revolutionaries for uploading music to the internet. There’s nothing quite so radical about their debut, which fuses a punk snarl with the sharp tunes and agitated rhythms of New Wave, but it’s delivered with such invigorating panache that every note sounds fresh. The clincher is Alex Turner, who can carve knowing vignettes from any situation—whether he’s idly fantasising in a checkout queue (“I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor”) or, on “Mardy Bum”, lamenting a girlfriend’s volatile mood (“I see your frown and it’s like looking down the barrel of a gun.”)
Albums
Artist Playlists
- From precocious teens to brash rockers to profound balladeers.
- The Brit rockers look good on the dance floor—and on the screen.
- The English rock band brings their world tour stateside. Get the full set list.
- An electrifying synthesis of classic British rock, pop and punk.
- Lean back and relax with some of their mellowest cuts.
- Pairing hints of funk and glam with stunning lyricism.
- A deep dive into the album, which turned 10 this year.
- Celebrating 10 years of the iconic album.
- Strombo revisits the English band’s past work.
- Conversation around the band's latest album 'The Car.'
- The band has the cover, plus Carly Rae Jepsen joins live.
- Matt celebrates the band as they announce their return.
More To See
About Arctic Monkeys
The mid-2000s had no lack of garage-rockin’, skinny-jeaned upstarts vying to join The Strokes and The Libertines on the cover of NME. But not only were Sheffield, England’s Arctic Monkeys able to whip up a media frenzy worthy of their heroes, but they managed to thoroughly transcend it and become a rock institution unto themselves. Only 16 when he founded the band in 2002, singer/guitarist Alex Turner swiftly established himself as a songwriter of uncommon wisdom and wit, helping make the band’s scrappy 2006 salvo, Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not, the fastest-selling debut album in UK history. If that record suggested Turner was a natural inductee to the Ray Davies/Paul Weller/Damon Albarn school of British pub-rock philosophers, the Monkeys refused to settle for being a homegrown phenomenon and set their sights on global domination. By 2009’s Humbug, they were seeking riff-thickening advice from producer Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age, while their 2013 blockbuster, AM, cracked the US Top 10 (and later Apple Music’s 100 Best Albums list) with the sort of sing-along stompers naturally suited to the festivals they routinely headlined. But once they established themselves as one of the world’s biggest rock bands, the Monkeys proved they could be among its most adventurous too. On 2018’s glam-jazz concept album Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino, Turner wove a complex sci-fi narrative to address real-world woes like capitalism and media addiction, keeping his feet on the streets even as his band now orbit the stars. He proved that album wasn’t a total fluke by further refining its slower, crooned balladry on 2022’s The Car, echoing the luxurious drift of Scott Walker and Berlin-era Bowie against drowsy string arrangements and funky wah licks. Whatever the backdrop, Turner’s pen proves no less pointed as he settles confidently into middle age.
- ORIGIN
- Sheffield, England
- FORMED
- 2002
- GENRE
- Alternative