Arctic Monkeys

Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not arrived in 2006 with a very specific sense of place and pace. “I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor” and “When the Sun Goes Down” turned local observations into songs that travelled quickly. The clipped guitar interplay, Matt Helders’s drumming and Turner’s crowded lines gave the album its momentum. It sounded as though the words were trying to keep up with the evening.

Favourite Worst Nightmare in 2007 sharpened that attack while allowing more complicated moods to emerge. “Brianstorm” pushed the rhythm hard; “505” built patiently towards a very different kind of release. Humbug then changed the lighting in 2009, introducing heavier, stranger textures. The shift mattered because the group resisted becoming a permanent reenactment of its first record’s youthful urgency.

Suck It and See brought a brighter melodic emphasis before AM in 2013 reorganised the sound around weight, space and repeating rhythmic figures. “Do I Wanna Know?” made the opening guitar pattern do much of the talking, while “Arabella” and “Why’d You Only Call Me When You’re High?” found different ways to inhabit the same nocturnal world. The phrasing was slower, with more room around a line.

Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino and The Car later moved towards piano, orchestration and less direct narrative settings. They ask for a different kind of attention, but the catalogue makes sense as a sequence of changing viewpoints. The early songs rush past the details; the later ones linger over them. Hearing those approaches together reveals a band willing to alter its musical habits instead of simply replacing one hit with another.