Who would have thought that the very English Arctic Monkeys would one day be drinking hot beers, chain-smoking and recording in a desert with Josh Homme, who, as producer, would frantically be turning down all the treble knobs on the mixing board, pumping up the bass and urging them to try something more "exotic" to get that stoner vibe in their music.
In 2006, the Monkeys became a phenomenon. With the release of their first album Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not, not only did the Monkeys release the fastest selling debut album in UK chart history, selling 363,735 copies in the first week,  they also sold more copies on the first day alone, 118,501 and Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not became one of the Top Five British albums ever made, as quoted by New Musical Express.

Part of the success was that the Monkeys' music was fuelled by the ghosts of the past: you could hear harmony parts learnt from listening to the Beatles in their sleep, lyrics about everyday life courtesy of The Jam and borrowing heavily from the new lot, circa 2001- the Strokes, the Libertines and Franz Ferdinand-with a pinch of Oasis for good luck.

The other reason, more aptly heard on their second album Favourite Worst Nightmare, released in 2007, was that the Monkeys- guitarist Jamie Cook, drummer Matt Helders, bassist Nick O 'Malley and singer Alex Turner-  played with a nervous abandon, filling the songs with scattered riffs, clever wordplay, and trippy drumming. The key, however, was to play with precision, that the songs (most not going over the 3 minute mark) would become so choked full of ideas -   a heady mixture of ska, funk, pop and  post-punk guitar ethics-that their seams would begin to show.

Humbug, however, is a different beast. Recorded in California at Josh Homme's studio in the desert, Humbug is a murkier, looser entity, the inspirations seem changed here, gone is the dryly recorded feel  of Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not and Favourite Worst Nightmare, instead the album is full of the swamp: Queens of the Stone Age-inspired echoing guitar riffs and interlocked thick juicy bass lines and thunderous drum patterns. The ghosts still wander, but their faces are new, you can hear snippets of Hendrix, The Doors and Cream as the Monkeys dive into gloomy, sinister sexuality.

The album starts off with 'My Propeller', a very interesting tune where Turner and the band spend three and a half minutes using aviation metaphors to describe in what appears to be sexual innuendo. The fantastic bit comes after the two minute mark where among drums that sound like gun shots and liquid guitar licks, Turner swoons between desperation and ecstasy  and sings, "My propeller won't spin and I can't get it started on my own./When are you arriving?"

'Crying Lightning', the first single and perhaps the best song on the album, is a delightfully deranged mix of Spaghetti Western and bad acid trip. As Malley whips up a bouncy intricate bass line, Cook plays coiled guitar lines and Helders hits the drums to bring the house down, Turner, taking his cues from Jim Morrison and the Theatre of the Absurd, gleefully conjures up a love song for a very weird girl, "And your past-times, consisted of the strange/And twisted and deranged/And I hate that little game you had called/Crying lightning/And how you like to aggravate the icky man on rainy afternoons."

'Dangerous Animals' starts out as a brooding mid-tempo, start stop number and suddenly turns into a heart thumping, turn-the-volume-way-up, tumbling-my-way-down song in the chorus, " AN I M A L makes my head pirouette, more than i would be willing to confess/D A N G E R O U S/ A N G E R O U S/The most unsuitable pet/'Its been long enough so lets /Make a mess lioness." It might be a little cheesy for some tastes but its fun to hear a band in heat, sometimes.

'Potion Approaching' is an unsuccessful mixture of the main riff borrowed from Nirvana and a chorus right out of the Queens of the Stone Age songbook and a middle consisting of a stoner jam, its better to skip this one.

A song that starts off with a reversed guitar intro reminiscent of the Beatles tells us that 'Cornerstone' was not produced by Homme, and it isn't -it was produced by James Ford.
'Cornerstone' might be the prettiest pop song on Humbug, full of tender moments and beautiful singing by Turner, "I smelt your scent in the seatbelt/And I kept my shortcuts to myself." The only problem is that it sticks out like a sore thump among the other tracks. 
Elsewhere, on 'Dance Little Liar' and 'Fire and Thud', the Monkeys slow down the pace, evoke the swamp and successfully play around with angular guitar riffs and tight rhythms.
Humbug might not be the "great" third album, but it's where the Arctic Monkeys work with a darker palette, get weird and most of all have fun making music.

*****Get it NOW!
****Just get it
***Maybe maybe not
**Just download
the best song
*Forget that this was made