Every Arctic Monkeys Album Ranked

The Desert record. It seems a right-of-passage or even a cliche for big guitar bands to go off and get freaky amongst the dunes, but Humbug had the substance to back it up. This marked the biggest reinvention (at the time) for the band, delving further than ever into the opaque, poetic imagery that Turner had flirted with on Favourite Worst Nightmare. Musically, they slowed down the frantic tempo of both the earlier albums, letting the guitars slither and gyrate around each melody and metaphor. Humbug was met with the biggest backlash to date from fans but the band stuck to their guns, performing a whopping 80% of the album at their Reading and Leeds set in 2009, only one week after its release.

Despite it's frosty reception, Humbug showcases some of Turner's most deeply personal and emotionally rich songwriting, like the memory-lane scavenger hunt of Cornerstone. The track describes revisiting old meeting places shared with a former lover, looking for details that spark a reverie of a happier time, or even a suitable doppelgänger that could quell the heartache and keep the illusion of a past relationship alive. It's a startlingly honest account of the grief and desperation an ended relationship can cause.

Humbug was somewhat of a conjuror's trick played on the band's fanbase, weeding out those that wanted another Mardy Bum and rewarding those who cared to look a little deeper - 'Humbug' does mean 'to deceive' after all...