Every Arctic Monkeys Album, Ranked
Alex Turner sat down at a piano and Arctic Monkeys have argued with themselves ever since, which is the argument your vote joins. Studio albums only, in full, with nothing left out for being bad. At the Apollo and Live at the Royal Albert Hall are concert records and go. Who the Fuck Are Arctic Monkeys? runs five tracks, one already the debut's opener, and Five Minutes with Arctic Monkeys is shorter: both studio EPs go out on length. Submarine carries Alex Turner's name, The Last Shadow Puppets another. Six countdowns set the split, namely Exclaim!, Consequence, Louder, Paste, alt77 and Hunger, and a countdown whose publication date falls before a record's release is struck from that record's denominator, while an omission for any other reason is not. A third place or better from 4 of its open countdowns makes the upper bracket, everything that misses makes up the lower one, and sequence inside either is yours. The link goes to the oldest edition Spotify carries of that record, chosen by edition and never by the date the page prints.
Arctic Monkeys — AM (2013) is #1 on “Every Arctic Monkeys Album, Ranked”.
- 1
Arctic Monkeys — AM (2013)
Josh Homme had spent two albums teaching this band to slow down, and it shows: hip-hop drum placement, backing vocals sung high and soft, a riff held back until it hurts. Arabella runs a riff close enough to War Pigs that the band drop the Sabbath song in live while Turner swaps guitars. Second on three of the countdowns, third on two more, fifth only on Paste: 5 top three placings out of the 6.
Open in Spotify - 2
Arctic Monkeys — Favourite Worst Nightmare (2007)
Fast, loud, and cut within a year of the debut by people who had been on the road ever since and had the chops to show for it. 505 closes the record on an organ drone and a guitar that finally stops holding back. Exclaim!, Consequence, alt77 and Hunger all seat it third or better, 4 of 6 and the tier line exactly, while Louder and Paste bury it at sixth.
Open in Spotify - 3
Arctic Monkeys — Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not (2006)
Songs written by a nineteen-year-old with a tape recorder's memory for overheard dialogue, and a rhythm section not yet equal to them. A Certain Romance closes it out at five and a half minutes, the point where the sneer drops and everything turns fond. All 6 countdowns place it first. What it caught is why, and the playing is the part that has dated.
Open in Spotify - 4
Arctic Monkeys — Tranquility Base Hotel + Casino (2018)
A lounge-piano suite about a hotel on the moon, written on a Steinway Vertegrand that manager Ian McAndrew gave Alex Turner for his thirtieth birthday, with the guitars pushed nearly out of frame. Star Treatment opens on a nod to the Strokes and then talks for almost six minutes without reaching a chorus. Paste ranks it second while alt77 and Hunger both stop at sixth, so it takes 1 top three from the 6.
Open in Spotify - 5
Arctic Monkeys — Humbug (2009)
Recorded with Josh Homme at Rancho De La Luna and Pink Duck, then finished with James Ford in New York, and you can hear four people unlearning the fast stuff in real time, sometimes badly. Cornerstone stands apart from all that, three minutes and change of acoustic heartbreak carrying one genuinely nasty joke. A third place is its 1 qualifying placing in the 6, and one countdown puts it dead last of everything.
Open in Spotify - 6
Arctic Monkeys — Suck It and See (2011)
Sunlit, tuneful, and built out of the sound they already had, which makes forty pleasant minutes and a strange choice from people who had just spent two years getting stranger. Piledriver Waltz turned up first on an Alex Turner soundtrack EP and came back in a rock band's hands. Louder is the single countdown of the 6 to hand it a top three; the others put it fourth, fourth, fourth, fifth and seventh.
Open in Spotify - 7
Arctic Monkeys — The Car (2022)
Strings, wah-wah guitar and a singer who has decided plain speech is beneath him, running the method its predecessor set up. Body Paint ends on a guitar solo that runs well past where the song stops needing it. Hunger went to press the day before it arrived, so it answers to 5 countdowns and places top three on 0 of them, though its Metacritic score on release came out level with the debut's.
Open in Spotify
How this list was ranked
Readers rank this list by voting items up and down. Items are ordered by reader votes.
