2002–2005: Early years and record deal Arctic Monkeys were formed in mid-2002 by friends
Alex Turner,
Matt Helders, and
Andy Nicholson (who left the band shortly after their debut album, ''
Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not'', was released). Turner and Helders were neighbours and close friends, and they met Nicholson in secondary school. In 2005, Turner said they took their name from a band that Helders' dad played in during the 1970s: "He passed it down from generation to generation, like a recipe." Initially, Turner was reluctant when it came to being the lead singer. The band began rehearsing at
Yellow Arch Studios in
Neepsend, and played its first gig on 13 June 2003 at The Grapes in Sheffield city centre. After a few performances in 2003, the band began to record
demos at 2fly studios in Sheffield. The name
Beneath the Boardwalk originated when the first batch of demos were sent around. receiving attention from
BBC Radio and the British tabloid press. A local amateur photographer, Mark Bull, filmed the band's performances and made the music video "
Fake Tales of San Francisco", releasing it on his website, This release was limited to 500 CDs and 1,000 7" records, but was also available to download from the
iTunes Music Store. The band said they were attracted to the
DIY ethic of Domino owner Laurence Bell, who ran the label from his flat and only signed bands that he liked personally. Arctic Monkeys denied this on their website, dubbing the newspaper "The Daily Stir". However, Domino had licensed the Australian and New Zealand publishing rights to EMI and the Japanese rights to independent label Hostess. Their second single, "
When the Sun Goes Down" (previously titled "Scummy"), released on 16 January 2006, also went straight to No. 1. The band's success with little marketing or advertising led some to suggest that it could signal a change in how new bands achieve recognition. ''Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not
became the fastest-selling debut album in UK chart history, selling 363,735 copies in the first week. This surpassed the previous record of 306,631 copies held by Popstars'' by
Hear'Say and sold more copies on its first day alone – 118,501 – than the rest of the Top 20 albums combined. The cover sleeve of ''Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not
, showing Chris McClure, a friend of the band smoking a cigarette, was criticised by the head of the NHS in Scotland for "reinforcing the idea that smoking is okay". The image on the CD itself is a shot of an ashtray full of cigarettes. and entered at No. 24 on the Billboard'' album chart after it sold 34,000 units in its first week, making it the second fastest selling debut
indie rock album in America. However, US sales for the first year did not match those of the first week in the UK for the album. US critics were more reserved about the band than their UK counterparts and appeared unwilling to be drawn into the possibility of "yet another example of the UK's press over-hyping new bands". However, the band's June 2006 tour of North America received critical acclaim at each stop – the hype surrounding them "proven to exist for good reason". The album was certified Gold by the
RIAA in 2017 for selling over 500,000 units in the United States. Meanwhile, the UK's
NME magazine declared the band's debut album the "5th greatest British album of all time". It also equalled the record of
the Strokes and
Oasis at the 2006
NME Awards, winning three fan-voted awards for Best British Band, Best New Band and Best Track for "I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor". Arctic Monkeys wasted no time in recording new material and released
Who the Fuck Are Arctic Monkeys?, a five-track EP on 24 April 2006. Due to its length, the EP was ineligible to chart as a UK single or album. The release of the EP
Who the Fuck Are Arctic Monkeys? Just three months after their record-breaking debut album has been criticised by some, who have seen it as "money-grabbing" and "cashing in on their success". The band countered that it regularly releases new music not to make money, but to avoid the "boredom" of "spending three years touring on one album". Soon after the release of the EP in the UK, the band announced that Andy Nicholson would not take part in the band's forthcoming North America tour due to fatigue from "an intensive period of touring". On returning to the UK, Nicholson confirmed that he would leave Arctic Monkeys and start his own project. Shortly after, Nick O'Malley was confirmed as the formal replacement for Nicholson. Turner said that the song was one of the last songs he wrote before their rise to fame and suggested that "it feels very much like it could be on the album". Peaking at No. 4 in the UK, the single became the band's first single not to reach No. 1. The band was re-united at the
Leeds Festival when Nicholson met up with his former bandmates and his replacement bassist, O'Malley. Only the original band members, minus Nicholson, were present at the award ceremony when ''Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not'' won the 2006
Mercury Prize two weeks later.
2007: Favourite Worst Nightmare The band's second album,
Favourite Worst Nightmare, was released on 23 April 2007, a week after the release of accompanying single "
Brianstorm". Like its predecessor,
Favourite Worst Nightmare quickly reached No. 1 in the album charts. Turner described the songs as "very different from last time", adding that the sound of some tracks are "a bit full-on – a bit like "From the Ritz to the Rubble", "The View from the Afternoon", that sort of thing". A secret gig played at Sheffield's
Leadmill on 10 February 2007, debuted seven new songs (six from
Favourite Worst Nightmare and one other). Early reviews of the release were positive and described it as "very, very fast and very, very loud". Meanwhile, the band continued to pick up awards from around the world, namely the Best New Artist in the United States at the
PLUG Independent Music Awards, the Album of the Year awards in Japan, Ireland and the US, awards for Best Album and Best Music DVD for the short film
Scummy Man at the 2007 NME Awards. It ended the year by clinching the Best British Band and Best British Album at the
2008 BRIT Awards. For the second year in a row, the band was nominated for the annual
Mercury Prize. On 29 April 2007, the day
Favourite Worst Nightmare charted at No. 1 in the
UK Albums Chart, all 12 tracks from the album charted in the Top 200 of the UK singles chart. The band later released "
Fluorescent Adolescent" as a single, and it charted at No. 5, after debuting the song live on
The Jonathan Ross Show dressed as clowns. The third single from
Favourite Worst Nightmare, "
Teddy Picker", was released on 3 December 2007. It charted at No. 20 and remained only one week in the top 40 staying in this position, making it the lowest charting single for the band so far. Prior to this release the band released an extremely limited number of 250
vinyls under the pseudonym
Death Ramps containing two of the
B-sides from the "Teddy Picker" single. In its first week of release the album sold 227,993 copies, emulating ''
Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not in going straight to number one in the UK Albums Chart, albeit selling 130,000 copies fewer than their record-breaking debut. The first two singles from the album "Brianstorm" and "Fluorescent Adolescent" were both UK Top Hits. Favourite Worst Nightmare''s first day sales of 85,000 outsold the rest of the Top 20 combined, while all twelve tracks from the album entered the top 200 of the UK singles chart in their own right. By September 2013 the album has sold 821,128 copies in UK and has since gone
3× platinum by 2018. In the
USA, the album debuted at number seven, selling around 44,000 copies in its first week. Arctic Monkeys headlined the
Glastonbury Festival on 22 June 2007, the highlights of which were aired on
BBC2. The band also played a large gig at
Dublin's
Malahide Castle on 16 June 2007, with a second date added the following day. On 28–29 July 2007 the band played their biggest concert to date with two sell out shows at the 55,000 capacity
Old Trafford Cricket Ground in
Manchester. Billed as being the group's own 'mini-festivals' both date saw support sets for
Supergrass,
The Coral,
Amy Winehouse and Japanese Beatles tribute act The Parrots. Other European festivals include Rock Werchter in 2007. The band played two shows at
Cardiff International Arena on 19 and 20 June 2007. They also played two London gigs at
Alexandra Palace on 8 and 9 December 2007. On 1 September 2007 the band performed an intimate show at
Ibiza Rocks show in Bar M (now Ibiza Rocks Bar) along with
Reverend and the Makers. The band played their last show of the tour on 17 December 2007 at Manchester Apollo, which was filmed for the live album and video release
At the Apollo, which was released in cinemas the following year.
2008–2010: Humbug , London, March 2010 After a brief hiatus during which Turner toured and recorded with his side project
the Last Shadow Puppets, During this tour, lead single "
Crying Lightning", along with
Humbug songs "Pretty Visitors", "Dangerous Animals" and "Potion Approaching" (then known as "Go-Kart"), was debuted live. However, the final track listing, revealed on 1 June 2009, listed only 10. In a preview article on
Clash, writer Simon Harper claimed that the band had "completely defied any expectations or presumptions to explore the depths they can reach when stepping foot outside their accepted styles," and that "Turner is his usual eloquent self, but has definitely graduated into an incomparable writer whose themes twist and turn through stories and allegories so potent and profound it actually leaves one breathless". On the same site, Turner revealed that the band had listened to
Nick Cave,
Jimi Hendrix and
Cream while writing the new album, the title of which would be
Humbug.
Humbug was released on 19 August 2009, and, like both of its predecessors, the album went straight to No. 1. As announced on Arctic Monkeys' website, the first single from
Humbug was "Crying Lightning", released on 6 July. The second single, "
Cornerstone", was released on 16 November 2009. It was announced in February 2010 that the third and final single to be taken from
Humbug would be "
My Propeller", released on 22 March. Shortly before the release of the new single, the band did a one-off UK show at the Royal Albert Hall in support of the Teenage Cancer Trust on 27 March. During this performance, they played a number of songs from
Humbug, plus older tracks such as "Brianstorm" and a cover of
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds' "
Red Right Hand". In North America, where they had less of a following, they played abridged sets at Montreal's
Osheaga Festival, as well as New Jersey's
All Points West Music and Arts Festival. The tour finished in early 2010 in Mexico.
2011–2012: Suck It and See in Chicago, August 2011
NME reported in May 2011 that the band were teaming up with producer
James Ford once again and would be releasing their fourth studio album in late spring at the earliest.
Q magazine reported that the fourth Arctic Monkeys album would be of a "more accessible vintage" than
Humbug.
Q printed edition 299 states "It's the sound of a band drawing back the curtains and letting the sunshine in". The album was recorded in
Sound City Studios in Los Angeles in 2010 and 2011. On 4 March 2011, the band premièred on its website a new track called "
Brick by Brick" with lead vocals by Matt Helders. Helders explained that this is not a single, just a tease of what is coming and that is it is going to be on the fourth album. Their fourth album's first single, titled "
Don't Sit Down 'Cause I've Moved Your Chair" was released as a digital download on 12 April and on vinyl with "Brick by Brick" on 16 April for
Record Store Day. A version of the single with 2 B-sides was released on 7 and 10 inch vinyl on 30 May.
Suck It and See was then released on 6 June 2011, In doing so, Arctic Monkeys became only the second band in history to debut four albums in a row at the top of the charts. Most of the stock was burned because of the
London riots. A limited edition 7" Vinyl of the single was then released over the band's website on 14 August. In September 2011 the band released a music video for the song "
Suck It and See" featuring drummer Matt Helders, and announced they would be releasing it as a single on 31 October 2011. In July 2011, the band released a live EP over
iTunes with 6 live recordings from the
iTunes Festival in London. Overall, the album sold 333,000 units.
NME named the album cover, an artwork-free cream monochrome after the styling of the Beatles'
White Album, as one of the worst in history. In July, the album won Mojo award for the Best Album of 2011.
Mojo placed the album at number 39 on its list of "Top 50 albums of 2011". On 30 May, a week before official release,
Domino Records streamed the entire album on
SoundCloud. Within a few hours of being made public, the first two tracks had reached over 10,000 listens each, and by the end of the week, each had accrued over 100,000 plays. They headlined the
Benicàssim Festival 2011 alongside
the Strokes,
Arcade Fire and
Primal Scream. They also headlined
Oxegen 2011,
Super Bock Super Rock 2011,
V Festival 2011,
Rock Werchter and T in The Park. They confirmed on 7 February that they were playing two "massive homecoming shows" at the
Don Valley Bowl in Sheffield on 10 and 11 June, support included
Miles Kane,
Anna Calvi,
the Vaccines and Dead Sons and Mabel Love, clips from the show were also used in the music video for "The Hellcat Spangled Shalalala". On 27 October they released a music video for "Evil Twin" on YouTube, the B-side to their new single "Suck It and See". They performed the song on
The Graham Norton Show on 28 October. The fourth single from
Suck It and See, "
Black Treacle" was released on 23 January 2012. This video for the single continued the theme from the previous single, "Suck It and See" and "Evil Twin". On 4 March, it went to No. 23 on the UK singles chart on downloads alone. On 21 April, the song was released as a single, with the track "Electricity" as a B-side, released additionally for Record Store Day. On 14 June, the band debuted another song titled "Mad Sounds" at
Hultsfred Festival in Sweden. Four days later, on 18 June 2013, the band released the official video to "Do I Wanna Know?". The studio version of the song, along with accompanying visuals, was also made available to purchase via iTunes and entered the UK singles chart at number 11. On 23 June 2013 Arctic Monkeys headlined
Southside Festival in Germany. The band's fifth studio album,
AM, was released on 9 September 2013. The album was recorded in
Rancho de la Luna in
Joshua Tree, California and features guest appearances from
Josh Homme of
Queens of the Stone Age,
Elvis Costello's drummer
Pete Thomas and
Bill Ryder-Jones of
the Coral. The band played at the
2013 Glastonbury Festival on 28 June as headliners at the Pyramid stage. Arctic Monkeys also headlined the 2013
Open'er Festival in
Gdynia, Poland and played on the main stage on 4 July. On 20 July, the band performed at
Benicàssim 2013. On 11 August 2013, the third single from the album, "
Why'd You Only Call Me When You're High?", was released, with the B-side "Stop The World I Wanna Get Off With You". It debuted at no. 8 on the UK singles chart on 18 August 2013, making it the band's first UK Top 10 single since 2007's "Fluorescent Adolescent". The band streamed the album in its entirety four days ahead of its release.
AM has received critical acclaim from music critics. At
Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 81, based on 36 reviews. Simon Harper of
Clash magazine states: "Welding inspiration from hip-hop greats with rock's titans,
AM is built upon portentous beats that are dark and intimidating, yet wickedly thrilling." Ray Rahman of
Entertainment Weekly gave it an 'A−' and opined that "
AM mixes
Velvet Underground melodies,
Black Sabbath riffs, and playful grooves, and has fun doing it."
Time Out said of the album: "One of Britain's greatest bands just got greater in an unexpected but hugely welcome way. Single men, I urge you: put down
FHM and pick up
AM." In their 10/10 review,
NME wrote that
AM is "absolutely and unarguably the greatest record of their career". In his 8/10 review, J.C. Maçek III of
PopMatters praised Turner for being "at his most poetic to date" and called the album "a wonderfully cohesive and diverse album that fits together incredibly well". Tim Jonze of
The Guardian noted that the album "manages to connect those different directions – the muscular riffs of
Humbug and the wistful pop of
Suck It and See – with the bristling energy and sense of fun that propelled their initial recordings".
Pitchforks Ryan Dombal called
AM "paranoid and haunted". Upon the release of
AM on 9 September 2013, the album debuted at number 1 in the UK album charts, selling over 157,000 copies in its first week. As a result, Arctic Monkeys made history as the first independent label band with five consecutive number 1 albums in the UK. The album received widespread critical acclaim and brought Arctic Monkeys their third nomination for the
Mercury Prize. The album also won the Brit award for Best British Album. In the United States, the album sold 42,000 copies in its first week and debuted at number six on the
Billboard 200 chart, becoming the band's highest-charting album in the United States. In August 2017,
AM was certified
platinum by the
RIAA for combined sales and
album-equivalent units over of a million units in the United States. Turner has stated that Homme's appearance on the song "Knee Socks" marks his favourite moment of the whole album. On 23 and 24 May 2014, Arctic Monkeys held one of their biggest shows to date, playing to approximately 80,000 across two days shows at Finsbury Park with the support act by
Tame Impala,
Miles Kane and
Royal Blood. Arctic Monkeys also headlined the
Reading and Leeds Festival in August 2014. The band had a handful of shows in late 2014, which closed the AM Tour. In December 2014, "Do I Wanna Know?" was nominated for the
Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance. On 24 August 2014, the band announced a hiatus following their AM Tour. Turner and Helders have both pursued other projects during this time. In 2016, Turner announced his second album with the Last Shadow Puppets, ''
Everything You've Come to Expect''. Helders played the drums on Iggy Pop's album
Post Pop Depression. In July 2016, the band revealed an elephant sculpture designed in the style of their
AM album cover for charity. The project raised money for the
Sheffield Children's Hospital arts trail. The album had begun recording in September 2017. The album,
Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino was released on 11 May 2018. The band headlined a handful of festivals in summer 2018, included
Firefly Music Festival,
TRNSMT,
Rock Werchter,
Lollapalooza,
Austin City Limits Music Festival, and the
Voodoo Experience. Despite its stylistic deviation polarising listeners,
Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino was released to generally positive reviews. It became the band's sixth consecutive number-one debut in the UK and the country's fastest-selling vinyl record in 25 years. Following its release, the album was promoted by the singles "
Four Out of Five" and "
Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino", multiple television appearances. Reflektor Magazine had the following to say about the album in a review, "After five years of silence, the Arctic Monkeys make their much-awaited return with surprising and hypnotic
Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino. Perfectly managing to avoid self-parody or stylistic repetitions, this new album appears as a startling reinvention, a meandering and puzzling journey beyond known territories. Just like mankind first set foot on the moon on the 'Tranquility base' site, the Arctic Monkeys disembark in an unknown universe in which they reveal a new, unexpected aspect of themselves.".
Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino was nominated for the 2018
Mercury Prize, an annual prize awarded to the year's best British or Irish album. This became the band's fourth nomination for the award: the second most nominations received by any act. The album also appeared on numerous year-end lists. With
Q and
Kitty Empire of
The Observer naming it the best album of 2018. Publications including
NME,
The Independent and
Mojo also listed
Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino as the year's second best album.
Uproxx,
BBC Radio 6 Music and
Entertainment Weekly included the album in the top five of their year-end lists, with
Vulture and
The Guardian including the album in their top ten. Publications that listed the album in their top twenty include
Paste and
The Line of Best Fit. Numerous publications included
Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino in their top fifty albums of the year, including
Crack Magazine,
Esquire,
musicOMH,
Pitchfork,
Uncut and
Louder Than War, while
Vice listed the album in their top hundred. A live album from their 2018
Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino Tour concert at the
Royal Albert Hall entitled
Live at the Royal Albert Hall was released on 4 December 2020. On 23 August 2022 at the Zurich Openair festival, they debuted new song "I Ain't Quite Where I Think I Am". The following day they announced their seventh studio album,
The Car, which was released on 21 October 2022. On 30 August 2022, they released the first single from the album, "
There'd Better Be a Mirrorball", accompanied by a video directed by Turner. On 29 September 2022, the second single "
Body Paint" was released. "I Ain't Quite Where I Think I Am" was released as the third single on 18 October 2022.
The Car peaked at No. 2 on the UK Albums Chart, behind
Taylor Swift's
Midnights. In the US, the album landed at No. 6 on the
Billboard 200. On 24 June 2023, the band headlined the Pyramid Stage at
Glastonbury Festival, their third time headlining at the festival.
The Car like its predecessor, was nominated for the 2023
Mercury Prize. This was their fifth nomination, the most nominations of any artist, held jointly with
Radiohead. The album was also nominated for "
Best Alternative Music Album" at the
66th Annual Grammy Awards, the songs "
Body Paint" and "
Sculptures of Anything Goes" were nominated in the
Best Alternative Music Performance and
Best Rock Performance categories respectively.
The Car received praise from critics, being called the best album of the year by
NME as well as being in the top five of several publications, including
DIY,
The Sunday Times and
The Guardian. On 20 January 2026, Arctic Monkeys announced they would be releasing a new single as part of an upcoming project with charity organisation
War Child, later revealed to be the compilation album
Help(2). ==Musical style and influences==