1. Arctic Monkeys - AM
Could it be anything else? Pulling up to the gates of critical judgement once more to reassert themselves as the best band of the 21st century was not enough for Arctic Monkeys; they had to get there in style. In the smoothest Cadillac with the wing mirrors snapped off, as per 'The Blond O-Sonic Shimmer Trap' and clad in thigh-high cowboy boots looking for sumptuous females in knee-high socks, these proletariat prodigious sons of the mighty High Green completed the rock-star transition in true T-Rex style. With a ball in every court of rock n' roll history but only a solitary, justified instance of riff-borrowing in the West Coast whirlwind 'Arabella', AM might just be the most unexpected move yet in their surprisingly short history, and it slots into their discography like a hand in a glove as the prettier sister of 'Humbug' (if slightly less lyrically dense). Turner's personal favourite moment is the 'Knee Socks' breakdown and that might be his best call since he compared sexless love to a 'Bloody Mary lacking in tabasco'. With welcome appearances from long-time collaborator Josh Homme, Elvis Costello's drummer Pete Thomas and the Coral's Bill Ryder-Jones, 'AM' is like a hot shower in the snow refreshing, fragile and, given the right company, extremely sexy. The hip-hopping, do-wopping end product of Alex Turner's lusty trek through some of rock 'n' roll's softest and heaviest stylistic nuances proves itself the marvel of the year in just shy of forty minutes.
Words by Jack Haworth