AM I going to Snap Out of It?: 10 Years of the Arctic Monkeys record
Written by Jacob Payling Edited by Eve Moat
When Arctic Monkeys released Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino (2018), like many other
fans of the Indie-Rock genre, I slowly began to fall out of love with Sheffield’s favourite
foursome. I still have vivid memories of going to see that eponymous 2018 tour: me, a casual Monkeys
listener at my first show, desperate to hear the rowdy and up-tempo classic The View From
The Afternoon (2006) and instead being treated to nearly an hour of dreary, dragging ballads
performed rather wearily by Turner. Besides the standout track Four Out Of Five, the first
half of the night was slightly disappointing, and it was only later into the night when guitarist Jamie
Cook sounded the fuzzy riff of R U Mine? that the show began to take off. The
mass of sweaty teens crowded the pit, breaking off into mosh-pits as drummer Matt
Helders made the staccato snare reverberate around the arena. It was almost as if the sound team had turned up the band’s entire mix. My friends and I left the show with Why’d You Only Call Me When You’re High? stuck in our heads, with us humming it to our hearts content.
Five years on since that show and a decade since the album’s release, it is plain to see why
AM (2013) is still the band’s most commercially successful album. While on Tranquility Base Hotel and Casino (2018) and The Car (2022), Turner’s lyrics are sometimes tediously introspective, whereas on AM (2013) he is brilliantly to the point, commanding his lover to Snap Out of It, asking R U Mine? and later Why’d You Only Call Me When You’re High? is questioned. Indeed, AM follows the blueprint for a successful record through Turner’s universal and digestible lyrics. Each song’s subject matter is never far from home and frequently touches on themes of failed romances and drunken promises. For example, the track I Wanna Be Yours (written by John Cooper Clarke, sang by Alex Turner) perfectly balances the recognisable theme of unrequited love with personal, specific imagery. My favourite instances of this are where Turner asks to be his lover’s ‘vacuum cleaner, breathing in [their] dust‘ and later to be their ‘setting lotion, and hold [their] hair in deep devotion’.
Alongside its lyrical pedigree, AM’s status as the band’s most popular record – three of its
tracks boast over 1 billion streams – is reinforced by its sonic power. Recorded in Los
Angeles with producer James Ford, the album’s tone is markedly different from any previous
release. Most notably the Arctic Monkeys cast off their usual listening habits of British rock and instead take inspiration from the US hip hop scene. Unlike 2011 release Suck It and See where the band used mostly live takes, sounding, as Turner puts it, like “four lads in a room”, AM is masterclass in overdubbing, layering and aural experimentation. Besides the dreamy, almost Beatles-inspired Mad Sounds, a personal favourite of mine, and No. 1 Party Anthem which is reminiscent of Turner’s solo work on Submarine (2011), AM (2013) takes inspiration from bands such as Black Sabbath and Queens of the Stone Age. Indeed, Josh Homme of the latter group does actually provide background vocals on two of AM’s tracks though.
It’s frankly scary to think that AM (2013) turns ten years old this month. For myself and my
friends, tracks like Arabella and Do I Wanna Know? were the soundtrack to our teenage
years, our introduction to the rock genre, and the songs we would slap on just before a night out.
Moreover, Snap Out of It was the first song we covered and performed live in my band,
kidding ourselves that we had the swagger of Alex Turner. A decade on from its release, AM
has undeniably stood the test of time. When I walk into my local HMV, the white waveform
still stands boldly against the black background. In Indie bars across the country R U Mine?
is always a crowd favourite and I even occasionally hear Why’d You Only Call Me… at my
gym. AM is undoubtedly a seminal record in the rock world and is now, more than ever,
worth a listen.
