10 Rock Music Acts That Went Dark (AND NAILED IT)

After making some of the greatest garage rock of their time, Arctic Monkeys were actually in somewhat of a bad spot coming out of Favorite Worst Nightmare. Success can always be a good thing, but coming into the party late when bands like the Strokes and The White Stripes were already killing it meant they needed to evolve fast. Change was in the air for Alex Turner, and the band really found their calling in the lush deserts of California.

Coming right after the more high octane sounds of Brianstorm and Fluorescent Adolescent, Humbug is coming from a different place entirely, with the band hooking up with Josh Homme from Queens of the Stone Age and making something that was a lot more expansive. While Alex's knack for songwriting is still there on songs like Bad Animals and My Propeller, you can definitely feel the stoner rock creeping in ever so slightly, from the different tones on the guitar to songs like Crying Lightning, as Alex dips into a much deeper register than he was used to on the chorus.

There's no chance that this album holds up to the more celebrated songs in the Monkeys' discography, but their choice to evolve on this record is what helped them maintain their career renaissance in the next few years. A song like Crying Lightning might not light the world on fire like they did in the early days, but this was the road that would take them to songs like Do I Wanna Know a little later.