Few UK bands have ever caught the imaginations of music lovers to the same extent as Arctic Monkeys.
Alex Turner and co have inspired legions of fans for two decades, releasing seven massively popular albums and playing to millions around the world. There’s been plenty of reinvention along the way, with each album in turn showcasing new and previously unheard sides to the band’s sound.
Last week the Arctic Monkeys received their fifth Mercury Prize nomination: the announcement meant they joined Radiohead as the most nominated act of all time. They previously won with their 2006 debut album Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not.
Their seventh album, The Car, was released last October, and went straight to the top of the album charts: in the UK it peaked at number two, while in the US it peaked at number six. On the whole, the critics loved it too, with the Standard’s David Smyth saying, “We’ll always have AM, and now we have something else that’s extraordinary in a whole new way.”
The Car was then listed on numerous end of year “best album” lists from major pubslications including NME, The Sunday Times, The LA Times, Billboard, The Guardian, Time Out and Vogue.
As we wait to find out whether the band will be awarded their second Mercury Prize at the upcoming September 7 awards ceremony, we take a look over the band’s albums.
From their record-breaking debut, Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not, to 2018’s Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino, these are the Arctic Monkeys’ albums ranked from worst to best.
7. Tranquillity Base Hotel & Casino
After taking the music world by the scruff of the neck with the thunderously successful AM, Arctic Monkeys underwent their biggest reinvention to date on Tranquillity Base Hotel & Casino. The group swapped their leather jackets for comfy linen slacks, loosening up their approach with a collection of lunar-inspired lounge rock. Turner’s observations were as whip smart and wryly humorous as ever. Sadly though, it wasn’t enough to sustain an album of largely forgettable songs which lacked focus and lapsed into the realms of self-indulgence far too frequently. “So I tried to write a song to make you blush, but I have a feeling that the whole thing may well just end up too clever for its own good,” Turner sang on the meandering Science Fiction, his tongue wedged firmly in his cheek. It’s another example of witty affectation failing to cover up precious little substance on album number six.
6. The Car
The Car may be up for a Mercury Prize, but it’s not exactly our favourite Arctic Monkey album, and some of the band’s fans felt the same. Running at 37 minutes, and made up of ten tracks, the 2022 release is as far a cry for the band’s signature heavy riff rock sound as seemingly possible. Written with an orchestral score, there’s real soul and funk here as the tracks ponder love and life. The album works as a continuation of Tranquillity Base... by utilising similarly laid-back lounge pop and soul sounds, forever teetering on the brink of the huge, crashing hooks the band were formerly known for, before smouldering away again just as quickly.
Nonetheless, The Car is inarguably elegant, pleasingly textured and shows the band working on a new grand scale. It’s notoriously hard for any musical act to keep up its momentum, but nearly two decades after they exploded onto the scene, the Arctic Monkeys are still a tight-knit band, producing ever-more ambitious and thought-provoking music.
5. Favourite Worst Nightmare
The band followed up their enormously successful debut with the more sonically expansive and multi-faceted album Favourite Worst Nightmare. Standouts Brianstorm and Fluorescent Adolescent remain crowd-pleasers in the live setting, while excellent tracks Teddy Picker, This House is a Circus and Do Me a Favour are still some of the most underrated in the band’s catalogue. It might have been slightly less impactful than their inspired debut but Turner’s songwriting certainly diversified on album number two. The woozy balladry of The Only Ones Who Know and the propulsive, expansive 505 added new dimensions, and gave an indication of what was to come.
4. Suck It and See
Arctic Monkeys returned in 2011 with a collection of breezy indie pop, which took some by surprise after the harder-hitting desert rock of third album Humbug. From the yearning She’s Thunderstorms to the sun-drenched closer That’s Where You’re Wrong, the album saw Turner embrace the role of love-struck crooner like never before. It’d be fair to say Suck It and See suffered a little from a lack of killer singles and standout moments. However, lyrically their frontman was at the top of his game, veering from wonderfully nonsensical (Library Pictures) to profound (Piledriver Waltz) and throughout showcasing his poetic delivery with coquettish charm.
3. AM
From the stadium-sized opening riff of Do I Wanna Know? to the glam metal stomp of Arabella, everything about AM is pure blockbuster. The Sheffield group turned up the spectacle and took their popularity to new realms on album five, with killer singles R U Mine? and Why’d You Only Call Me When You’re High? proving standout moments. The band’s new direction couldn’t have been further removed from the introspective Suck It and See and showed their fine knack for reinvention. It’s arguably let down a little by middling tracks I Want It All and Mad Sounds, but there’s no doubt that AM captures one of the band’s finest moments.
2. Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not
Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not became the fastest selling debut album in British music history back in 2006, launching four lads from Sheffield, two of them still teenagers, to the realms of mega stardom. The hype, as much as Turner told us not to believe it, was totally justified. Few UK albums of recent times have caught music fans’ imaginations in the same way as the band’s debut, which features some of the most expressive rock music of the 21st century. Fan favourites Mardy Bum, I Bet You Look Good On the Dancefloor and When The Sun Goes Down still rank among the band’s finest tracks. The album is full of evocative storytelling far beyond the band’s years too, with Turner regaling fans with tales of taxi-rank scrapes and offering up perceptive social commentary on tracks like A Certain Romance. It was the start of great things to come.
1. Humbug
After establishing themselves as the biggest band in the UK, Arctic Monkeys threw fans a real curveball on Humbug, ditching the spiky indie which had paid such dividends on albums one and two. The result was their most accomplished collection of tracks yet, which captured the sound of a band at the peak of their creative powers. Josh Homme proved an inspired choice of producer, with the Queens of the Stone Age frontman adding muscle and menace to the band’s sound. Opening tracks My Propellor, Crying Lightning and Dangerous Animals are as sordid as they are spectacular, greeting listeners with wide-eyed glee and a demented Cheshire-cat grin. However, the album’s standout moment comes in the form of Cornerstone, which is the most awe-inspiring and enigmatic track the band have ever put to record. It might have proved divisive upon release but Humbug remains the band’s most cohesive and assured album to date.
