Artists & Bands

Arctic Monkeys tunes

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From MySpace to Glastonbury!

Using MySpace to gain traction after they formed in 2002, Arctic Monkey’s 2006 debut was tipped for success by everyone in the business.

Perfectly in tune with the title of their first album, Alex Turner exclaimed – Don’t believe the hype, before they launched into what was to be the first big single and in some ways, still their biggest hit.

Indeed, there was a lot of hype around the first album, Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not, they’d played the system well.

In the U.K., only Lily Allen had worked out how to successfully use the internet to push her music in early 2000, before there was Facebook and YouTube.

Of course, with no tunes, all the hype in the world wouldn’t have helped, but Arctic Monkeys had the tunes in I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor, When The Sun Goes Down, and fan favourite Mardy Bum.

Slotting in alongside other contemporary indie garage-rock bands like The Strokes, The Libertines, and The Fratellis, it was as if they were part of something bigger, a new musical movement.

The debut brought them tours, fame, and the chance to keep making more albums.

The next three studio albums Favourite Worst Nightmare, Humbug, and Suck It And See didn’t have any tunes of the same caliber, yet it didn’t seem to matter. It was as if the fans allowed them to grow. The albums charted high, the singles didn’t.

In 2013, when they released AM, we heard a much more mature version of the Arctic Monkeys, and the tunes are back: Why’d You Only Call Me When You’re High? in many critics and fans’ opinion, their greatest release ever, Do I Wanna Know?

Alex Turner’s lyrics and rock star persona had taken his monkeys to a place where they were credible and had the tunes, the fans, the festivals, and sold-out tours. In other words: They’d made it.

In 2018, they released Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino, and in 2022 The Car. No big tunes emerged from these two albums. Again, it doesn’t seem to matter.

Saying that, if they could top their best tunes I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor, When The Sun Goes Down, Mardy Bum, Do I Wanna Know? and Why’d You Only Call Me When You’re High? The Arctic Monkeys could become the biggest band in the world.

As we’re all waiting for the next album, the only thing that is certain is that whatever we think it’s gonna be like, that’s what it won’t be.