AM (2013)

AM is the fifth studio album by the English rock band Arctic Monkeys, released on 6 September 2013 through Domino Recording Company. It was produced by longtime collaborator James Ford and co-produced by Ross Orton at Sage & Sound Recording in Los Angeles and Rancho De La Luna in Joshua Tree, California.

The album was promoted by the singles "R U Mine?", "Do I Wanna Know?", "Why'd You Only Call Me When You're High?", "One for the Road", "Arabella", and "Snap Out of It". It features guest appearances by Josh Homme, Bill Ryder-Jones, and Pete Thomas.

Drawing inspiration from a wide range of genres, including psychedelic rock, blues rock, hard rock, heavy metal, desert rock, R&B, funk and soul, AM notably marks Arctic Monkeys' first venture into a hip hop-influenced sound. The band took a different approach to recording the album in comparison to their previous album, Suck It and See (2011), with more emphasis on creating a "studio album" according to frontman Alex Turner. The band incorporated new instruments on the album, including the Hohner Guitaret, celeste, and vintage drum machine. Thematically, the album concerns frustration surrounding tainted romance, sex and loneliness.

AM received critical acclaim, with critics praising its darker and groovier sound in comparison to the band's previous records. It won the Brit Award for British Album of the Year, and received nominations for the Mercury Prize and the Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance for the single "Do I Wanna Know?". Several media publications have ranked AM among the best albums of 2013, of the 2010s, and of all time. NME called it the best album of the decade, and included it on its "500 Greatest Albums of All Time" list. Rolling Stone included it on the 2020 edition of its "500 Greatest Albums of All Time" list.

It was also a commercial success, debuting atop the UK Albums Chart, their fifth consecutive album to do so, selling over 157,000 copies in its first week; it also went on to be one of the UK's best-selling vinyl albums of the decade, selling 73,000 units. In addition to topping charts in several other countries, and reaching the top ten in many more, the album became the band's most successful in the United States, debuting at number six on the Billboard 200 and topping four other Billboard charts. The single "Do I Wanna Know?" became the band's first song to enter the Billboard Hot 100. In 2023, the album was certified four-times platinum in the US by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

Production

Title

In an interview with Zane Lowe on BBC Radio 1, Arctic Monkeys frontman Alex Turner said that the album title was inspired by the Velvet Underground's 1985 compilation album VU: "I actually stole it from the Velvet Underground, I'll just confess that now and get it out of the way. The 'VU' record, obviously." He went on to say: "Did we cop out? Yeah! Summat about it feels like this record is exactly where we should be right now. So it felt right to just initial it."

Turner later revealed that the band had nearly titled the album The New Black, after a guitar amp they used in the recording process: "I got this old Rickenbacker thing that we recorded a lot through. There's no knobs, just two holes. And this little black amp that became known as The New Black. Crossed me mind to call the album that."

Josh Homme contribution

Speaking about Josh Homme's contribution to AM with Zane Lowe, Turner said: "The Josh thing was very much a case of one of us returning a back scratch to the other", referring to his appearance as a guest vocalist on the Queens of the Stone Age album ...Like Clockwork earlier in 2013. Turner continued: "He came down and sort of got us out of a little rut. It's just fun, it's friends, extended family now – [they] came round, had a fun night. His contribution to our record is really exciting, it's probably my favourite. The 30 seconds that he's in there is just, I dunno, it's like something that I've never heard before. Not to blow my own trumpet or anything, but you know what I'm saying." In an interview with 24sata, Turner mentioned that Homme would appear in the song "Knee Socks".

On 4 July 2013, Homme mentioned AM at the Rock for People festival in the Czech Republic: "I sang on the new Arctic Monkeys record. It's a really cool, sexy after-midnight record. It's called AM, so I guess that's really obvious. And it's really good. It's really good. It's not disco [as such], but it's like a modern, dancefloor sexy record. It's really good."