Humbug by Arctic Monkeys

Humbug, the third Arctic Monkeys album, came out on Domino in August 2009, and it's the record where the Sheffield wiseguys walked out into the desert and came back strange. They made it entirely in America: Josh Homme produced the sessions in Los Angeles and at Rancho De La Luna in Joshua Tree, while James Ford handled the New York City tracks. Alex Turner, Jamie Cook, Matt Helders and Nick O'Malley trade the sprinting garage-punk of the first two records for something slower, heavier and far murkier, shot through with stoner rock, surf twang and ambient haze.

Turner sounds like a different singer, hushed and brooding where he used to rattle off lines at speed, and his lyrics swap the kitchen-sink sketches for riddles and metaphor. "Crying Lightning" and "Cornerstone" show both sides. It still debuted at number one in the UK, and these days it's heard as the hinge that swung the band toward everything that came after.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.