Every Arctic Monkeys Album Ranked
Now that the moon dust has settled, could this be the definitive order?
Sheffield rockers Arctic Monkeys have been around the block a few times now. They've released six studio albums within a career that spans over ten years, taking the UK by storm at the tender age of 19 with the fastest selling debut album in British music history.
But was it their best?
Never ones to retread old ground, each album from the Monkeys has been wildly different to the last. You could say it's like comparing apples to oranges, but it's all fruit ultimately so we're giving it a try. Whether they're cartwheeling down sand dunes in the Humbug days or cruising through LA in the AM era, the common thread has always been the quality of their vision and storytelling.
As an avid fan who's followed them since their first single, it does feel like picking between your children, but I hope my unhealthy love for this band makes me somewhat qualified to try and settle the score, at least until the next album. Read on and risk anger, vindication or wholehearted bemusement.
6. Suck It And See
Suck It And See is by no means a bad album, but it shows an uncharacteristic lack of direction for Arctic Monkeys. Many fans were relieved to see tracks like The Hellcat Spangled Shalalala coming through with traditional song structures, catchy hooks and (despite the title) more accessible lyrics than the predecessor Humbug. But it wasn’t quite as simple as that.
Suck It And See sounds like it’s trapped between the smoke and mirrors of Humbug and the immediacy of Whatever People Say I Am That’s What I’m Not, trying to blend each ethos together with mixed results. Tracks like All My Own Stunts are still steeped in Humbug DNA whilst singles like Black Treacle and Suck It And See are Humbug’s antithesis, jangly Brit-pop infused summer anthems.
New ground is broken on Love Is A Laserquest as Turner turns the melancholic-lover dial up to 11, Library Pictures also pushes the envelope, a self confessed “nonsense poem” that reads like a fever dream from the Humbug writing sessions. It’s an interesting stopgap in the band's career, but as a whole the album amounts to a musical fork-in-the-road.