Arctic Monkeys - Humbug

Three albums into their career, and Arctic Monkeys are going along nicely, thank you. The frenzy that met their instant-classic debut would have been enough to derail most bands, but these Sheffield tykes always seemed different to the herd. Smart, witty, and so sardonic that the few interviews they allow generally descend into awkward in-jokes, they seem content to allow the hype to follow them around while they quietly go about their own thing. And their own thing, on Humbug, continues to be fantastic.

Recorded Stateside with Queens of the Stone Age’s Josh Homme on production duties, Humbug comes billed as a Sabbath-aping exercise in heaviosity. And while there’s a touch of the bone-dry Mojave desert sound in them guitars, Humbug is a pretty gentle listen; the gorgeous, swoonsome ‘Secret Door’ recalls none other than their hometown hero Richard Hawley. Alex Turner rarely gets above a croon – he sounds thoroughly relaxed throughout.

What’s so refreshing about Humbug is how well Arctic Monkeys are developing, without losing sight of what made them great in the first place. They may share Oasis’ lager-guzzling fanbase, but it’s about the only thing the two bands have in common. You get the feeling they could knock off a dozen ‘Mardy Bums’ with their eyes closed, but they are admirably determined not to cling to the band they once were.

It’s the same with Turner’s lyrics: he rightly recognizes that he can no longer write about taxi cab journeys home from Sheffield dive-bars, so he has successfully broadened his palette – but the fun is still all in the details. ‘Crying Lightning’s’ story of falling in and out of love with a bad-girl is superbly told, replete with flirtation at the pick ‘n’ mix counter (“I found your attention in the form of a gobstopper”) and rainy days spent aggravating the ‘icky man’ (apparently Yorkshire for the ice cream man). You can take the lad out of Sheffield, etc. The brilliant ‘Cornerstone’ is equally rich in detail and intrigue, with Turner, a little spookily, asking a girl “can I call you her name?”

Humbug is the sound of a band stretching its legs, and sounding confident in the process. Their newly Yankified sound may daunt, but their legion of fans shouldn’t find it hard to follow them: it’s another album of terrific stories put to thrilling music. They’re still a very English band, and a very great one.