Arctic Monkeys join Radiohead for most Mercury Prize nominations
Sheffield band are now on their fifth nomination
Recent Glastonbury headliners the Arctic Monkeys are one of the nominees for this year’s Mercury Prize.
This is the Sheffield band’s fifth nomination, which ties them with fellow Glasto toppers Radiohead as the most nominated act in the award’s history.
Watch: Arctic Monkeys – ‘There’d Better be a Mirrorball’
While Radiohead have never gone home with the prize, however – which is awarded for the best album released by a British or Irish act – the Arctic Monkeys did win for their debut album ‘Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not’ back in 2006.
The Arctic Monkeys released their seventh album ‘The Car’ in October.
Fellow nominees include Jesse Ware, who returns to the shortlist after an 11-year gap with her disco-fueled fifth album ‘That! Feels Good!’
Rapper J Hus is nominated for a second time for his third album ‘Beautiful and Brutal Yard’, as are Young Fathers, who won the prize in 2014 for debut album ‘Dead’.
There are also a number of debut nominees including jazz ensemble Ezra Collective, Irish contemporary folk group Lankum and avant-garde pop duo Jockstrap - who supported Blur at their huge Wembley reunion shows earlier this month.
Watch: Jockstrap – ‘Greatest Hits’
The full list of nominees for the Mercury Prize 2023 is:
Arctic Monkeys – ‘The Car’
Ezra Collective – ‘London Jazz’
Fred Again – ‘Secret Life’
J Hus – ‘Beautiful and Brutal Yard’
Jessie Ware – ‘That Feels Good’
Jockstrap – ‘I Love You Jennifer B’
Lankum – ‘False Lankum’
Loyle Carner – ‘Hugo’
Olivia Dean – ‘Messy’
Raye – ‘My 21st Century Blues’
Shygirl – ‘Nymph’
Young Fathers – ‘Heavy Heavy’
Gallery: Arctic Monkeys essential songs
'I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor'
Is there a better song to kick things off than the legendary 'I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor'? Released through Domino Recording Company in October 2005, the track was the band's first single from their debut studio album 'Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not', which was released back in January 2006. The song debuted at the Number 1 spot in the UK Singles Chart and has since proved to be one of their most popular bops of all time.
Frontman Alex Turner may now have a volatile relationship with the song, but 'I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor' remains a staple dancefloor filler. The band recorded the song three times to get it right, eventually settling on a version played at breakneck speed which became the song we know and love today.
There isn't too much nuance in the meaning behind this song. A pair of fit young partygoers are 'making the eyes' at each other across the room, and although the singer doesn't 'know if you're looking for romance', he later proclaims that 'there ain't no love, no Montagues or Capulets / Just banging tunes and DJ sets and / Dirty dance floors and dreams of naughtiness'. So there you have it.
Watch the video on YouTube.
'When the Sun Goes Down'
Released in 2006 as the second single from their debut album 'Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not', 'When the Sun Goes Down' became an instant classic, with the iconic hit flying straight to the Number 1 spot on the UK Singles chart.
The song is about prostitution in Sheffield. While the first three verses are slow and almost romantic in style, the song very suddenly turns to the chaotic rock that the Monkeys are still strongly associated with today, despite branching out into different genres over the years.
The lyrics to the first verse are: 'So who's that girl there? / I wonder what went wrong / So that she had to roam the streets / She don't do major credit cards / I doubt she does receipts / It's all not quite legitimate'. Turner's clever lyricism references The Police's Roxanne, also famously about prostitution, in the line: 'And he told Roxanne to put on her red light'.
The song even spawned a short film entitled Scummy Man, starring Stephen Graham and Lauren Socha who were also in the song's music video. Monkeys drummer Matt Helders is the only member of the band to appear.
Watch the video on YouTube.
'Mardy Bum'
The Monkeys' first album almost serves as a time capsule to life in Sheffield in the early Noughties; a love letter proving that whether they like it or not, the band were hopelessly devoted to the South Yorkshire city.
Where '...Sun Goes Down' follows their realisation of the goings-on after dark, 'Mardy Bum' documents a couple falling out over something trivial that gets blown out of proportion... Otherwise known as a situation that couples all over the world face every day - just with a few Yorkshire sayings thrown in for good measure… It's all 'reyt', though, even if you do have a 'face on'.
The first verse lyrics are: 'Well, now then, mardy bum / I've seen your frown and it's like looking down the barrel of a gun / And it goes off and out come all these words / Oh, there's a very pleasant side to you, a side I much prefer'.
The track was certified 3x Platinum by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) in May 2024, translating to roughly 1.8 million sales in the UK alone - pretty impressive.
Watch the video on YouTube.
'Brianstorm'
Released as the first single from Arctic Monkeys' 2007 follow-up album, 'Favourite Worst Nightmare', fans were thrilled to hear that they'd continued on their crusade for furiously fast riffs and drum beats yet somehow stepped things up a gear in 'Brianstorm', which peaked at Number 2 in the UK chart and appeared in an episode of Gavin and Stacey.
Alex explained the identity of 'Brian' in an interview with NME - the band met him backstage after a gig in Japan: "When he left the room, we were a bit in awe of his presence. So we did a brainstorm for what he was like, drew a little picture and wrote things about him."
Guitarist Jamie Cook added: "He was right smooth, very LA. He just appeared with like a business card and like a round neck T-shirt and a tie loosely around it, I'd never seen that before. It felt like he was trying to get inside your mind. We were checking out his attire; it inspired us."
Indeed, this is reflected in lyrics throughout the song, especially later on: 'Calm, collected and commanding (Top marks for not trying) / You leave the other stories standing with your renditions and jokes / Bet there's hundreds of blokes that have wept 'cause you've stolen their thunder'.
Watch the video on YouTube.
'Fluorescent Adolescent'
Released as the second single off the record, this upbeat, quirky song was written by Alex with the help of then-girlfriend Johanna Bennett - who went on to marry Kings of Leon's Matthew Followill. Peaking at Number 5 on the UK chart, it's now been certified 4x Platinum in the UK.
Johanna told The Guardian in 2007 of being involved in the process: "We were on holiday and had cut ourselves off from everything. We were in a really quiet hotel and didn't watch TV or listen to that much music. So as not to drive each other mad, we started messing around with these words like a game, singing them to each other."
Johanna, who is credited as a songwriter on the track, added: "It's great to think that it came from something we did for fun on holiday. It'll always be a good memory for Alex and I. He doesn't usually write lyrics with other people, though I think he enjoyed it."
The song itself is about a mature woman looking back on her youth and being wistful for her former sex life, as heard in the opening lyrics: 'You used to get it in your fishnets / Now you only get it in your night dress', as well as later on: 'The best you ever had is just a memory'.
The music video, directed by The IT Crowd's Richard Ayoade, saw the group reunite once again with Stephen Graham, who stars as the leader of a group of clowns who are embroiled in a fight with a group of people… Well, not dressed as clowns. Turns out, the two leaders were childhood friends, but things have turned bitter and the clown ends up bumping off his former pal in a fiery fiasco.
Watch the video on YouTube.
'Teddy Picker'
'Teddy Picker' was the third single off 'Favourite Worst Nightmare', just about breaking into the Top 20 on the UK chart, but it topped the UK Indie Chart no bother and has since been certified Gold in the UK. The music video was directed by Roman Coppola and sees the Monkeys recording the track at RAK Studios in London.
According to many fans online, the song - whose title refers to the infamous claw machine arcade games - shows the band being disillusioned with fame. They know how hard it is to make it big and the game is rigged - just like how toys are only won very occasionally. When you finally get the "prize", it might not be everything you'd hoped it would be.
This can be heard in the lyrics: 'Saw it and she grabbed it, and it wasn't what it seemed / The kids all dream of making it, whatever that means / Another variation on a theme / A tangle on the television and the magazine'.
Watch the video on YouTube.
'505'
Lauded by many as the greatest Arctic Monkeys song of all time, 'Favourite Worst Nightmare' closer '505' may not have been released as a single but its popularity among fans has never wavered - proven by the recent resurgence thanks to TikTok, which Alex Turner told NME he was "genuinely moved" by.
The haunting introduction containing an organ sample from Ennio Morricone's soundtrack for spaghetti western The Good, The Bad And The Ugly at the final stand-off scene.
Alex partially credits the success of the song to it being a setlist closer in the late Noughties, saying: "Without having '505' at the end of our shows for a few years around 2008, I'm not sure it would have found the new life it has now." It's also recently been certified 3x Platinum.
The song is widely accepted to be about someone wanting to return to a relationship that had previously failed, possibly more out of nostalgia than anything else. They appear to accept that while it wasn't a perfect relationship by any stretch, it was familiar and that's potentially what the character is craving at that time - despite knowing it isn't fruitful long-term.
This can be heard in the lyrics: 'When you look at me like that, my darlin', what did you expect? / I'd probably still adore you with your hands around my neck', and: 'But I crumble completely when you cry / It seems like once again you've had to greet me with goodbye'.
Although the significance of the number 505 isn't known for sure, it's largely acknowledged to be the room number of a hotel, presumably that the character shared with his former flame. Some have even ventured that the song could be about the aforementioned Johanna Bennett, with whom Alex wrote 'Fluorescent Adolescent'... In a hotel room... We'll leave it there.
Listen to the song on YouTube.
'Crying Lightning'
Released as the first single off their third album 'Humbug' on which they worked with Josh Homme from Queens of the Stone Age, 'Crying Lightning' was also one of the first songs that the group wrote for the record. Speaking to Zane Lowe in 2009, Alex said: "This was deemed the best signifier of the record. It was a favourite during recording. It's strange as far as a pop song goes."
Although the band haven't said a great deal about the song, fans have interpreted the song to be about a manipulative relationship, with the phrase "crying lightning" to mean crocodile tears - or someone who uses crying as a technique to force guilt and get away with bad behaviour.
It also sounds as though the person looks down on others in the lyrics: 'The next time that I caught my own reflection / It was on it's way to meet you / Thinking of excuses to postpone / You never looked like yourself from the side / But your profile could not hide / The fact you knew I was approaching your throne'.
Once again teaming up with Richard Ayoade, who directed their 'Fluorescent Adolescent' video as well as the At the Apollo DVD, the music video for 'Crying Lightning' features the group on a small boat on rough seas, later coming up against giant holograms of themselves emerging from the water.
Watch the video on YouTube.
'Cornerstone'
Second 'Humbug' single 'Cornerstone' is something of an antidote to the rest of the Josh Homme-influenced album. It's light and breezy, with production by James Ford of Simian Mobile Disco who has also worked with the likes of Foals, Florence and the Machine and Klaxons, amongst many others. The track was certified Gold in the UK in June 2024.
'Cornerstone' sees the singer longing wistfully after a former flame, seeing her likeness in many women that he comes across in various pubs - thought to be in his hometown of Sheffield. Although they don't seem to match many well-known establishments in the city, Turner could have been trying to keep things vague, only using half the names... We'll never know for sure.
The longing can be heard throughout the whole song, for example in the first verse: 'I thought I saw you in the Battleship / But it was only a look alike … She was close / Close enough to be your ghost / But my chances turned to toast / When I asked her if I could call her your name'.
Alex has voiced a few thoughts over the years on the track, telling Uncut he "wrote Cornerstone one morning, quite quickly," musing that "at other points in the day you're a bit more defensive". Listening to country music at the time, he spoke to New York magazine about how the "formula" of the genre sees the verses ending in "the same way". He added: "I started with the line 'I smelt your scent on the seat belt.' In reality, I was sitting in the back of a taxi and I got this scent in my nostrils of whomever I was longing for.
"Not to sound like a w-----, but with that song, I had an idea and it wrote itself. I'm not sure how I ended up with the girl's sister in the last verse, though. When I was in school, I think I probably fancied my girlfriend's sister or something."
So there you have it. The minimalist video was once again directed by Richard Ayoade and sees lead singer Alex with a pair of headphones on, lip-syncing his heart out on a mobile microphone in a completely white room.
Watch the video on YouTube.
'Don't Sit Down 'Cause I've Moved Your Chair'
The Monkeys introduced their fourth record 'Suck It And See' to their fans with 'Don't Sit Down 'Cause I've Moved Your Chair' as the first single. With its spaghetti Western-inspired guitar riff intro, the title was apparently thought up in a recording session when Alex was working on the soundtrack to 2010 film Submarine, and nearly caused a colleague to rather embarrassingly injure themselves.
"That's something someone said," he explained of the title to NME in 2011, adding: "In fact, I said it to somebody whose chair I moved and I didn't want them to hurt themselves. James Ford said, 'Oh, that sounds like it could be like a '60s garage 'Nuggets' tune and be called that'.
"So then we thought, 'Well, OK if that's what you can't do, then what sort of ridiculous things can you do that are probably more dangerous than if you just sat down?" And that sinister feeling of threat can certainly be heard in the song.
Watch the video on YouTube.
'R U Mine?'
Back in 2012, the twice-Platinum 'R U Mine?' kicked off a stream of iconic releases from Arctic Monkeys' fifth studio album, 'AM', as well as being the first song written for the record - on which they once again teamed up with Queens of The Stone Age's Josh Homme, although not as heavily as on their previous collaboration, 'Humbug'.
Speaking on the track's meaning, Alex Turner has claimed that the band were discussing uncertainties in past relationships, telling NME in 2012 that he'd drawn inspiration from the likes of Drake and Lil Wayne: "We've been listening to a lot of their stuff recently. I like that thing they do where they talk about something backwards, so they talk about it but then say what it actually is on the next line.
"It's hard to explain but I guess it's a little nod to that idea. So I say, 'I'm a puppet on a string', just before mentioning Tracy Island. That's what it's about – uncertainty."
The group also cited R&B singer Ashanti as inspiration for the track - telling Esquire in 2014: "We like the scales and the melodies on some of those records. The way the backing vocals might come right to the front and disappear again... There was a crossroads at one point where it was, like, 'Are we going to go for this thing or not?' And thankfully we decided to take the red pill" (a reference to the Matrix films).
Watch the video on YouTube.
'Do I Wanna Know?'
Released in June 2013, Arctic Monkeys' second 'AM' single 'Do I Wanna Know?' provided us with one of the most iconic intro riffs of all time, unsurprisingly landing the boys a nomination for Best Rock Performance at the 2015 Grammy Awards.
Fans of the four-piece have long debated the meaning of the song online, but the general consensus is that a relationship is falling apart, with the singer feeling as though they're losing control - something reflected in the David Wilson-directed graphic design video which gets steadily more chaotic. This can certainly be heard in the lyrics: 'But I don't know if you feel the same as I do / But we could be together if you wanted to'.
Speaking again about R&B influences on 'AM', Alex told Q Magazine: "We had this idea for a record where you take the compositional perspective of an R&B producer and apply that to a four piece rock 'n' roll band. Manipulating our instruments to make building blocks for the song in a way I'd imagine Timberland or someone constructs music. That's one way of looking at it."
Drummer Matt Helders added that the song went through different iterations before it became the version we know today, revealing that the band had gone to Joshua Tree for a fortnight to write: "'Do I Wanna Know?' is probably the only song that survived from that session, although not in the form it is now. It was really bassy and it didn't have that big chorus – it was basically just the drum loop. But it was the one that set the path for the rest of the album if you like. It was the one where, after we recorded it, we knew we were really on to something."
Co-producer James Ford also spoke on the record, revealing that this song was the moment it all "came together". He said: "I just remember thinking, 'This sums up what we're trying to do.' It felt kind of heavy - and heavy in mood as well. It had a weight to it that I really like. I remember when that came together being really excited, and seeing the picture crystallise in front of me a little bit of where we going. It was one of the first ones we got done, and it was that thing of it coming together – I could see the end call from that point onwards."
Interestingly, sister-trio Haim were asked to sing backing vocals on the track, which we can now hear as Turner and Helders' falsetto. Este Haim told NME that they were asked to, but didn't have enough time to learn the harmonies. She said: "That would have been our biggest dream come true – to sing on an Arctic Monkeys record. It was one of the most painful calls to say no. Maybe the worst day of my life."
Watch the video on YouTube.
'Why'd You Only Call Me When You're High?'
The catchy 2013 hit 'Why'd You Only Call Me When You're High?' also features on fifth record 'AM'. The title is fairly self-explanatory regarding the song's meaning - the singer is on a night out and looking for someone to spend the night with, calling a potential lover who isn't interested. Simple as. The whole song is brimming over with lust, from the clockwork drum patterns to the sexy guitar riffs. Could there also be a double meaning to the album's title 'AM'?
This can particularly be heard in the chorus lyrics: 'Now it's three in the mornin' and I'm tryin' to change your mind / Left you multiple missed calls and to my message, you reply / "Why'd you only call me when you're high?" / "Hi, why'd you only call me when you're high?"'.
It's also reflected in the music video, directed by Nabil Elderkin and starring the band along with Lamie Stewart as Stephanie, the girl Turner is pursuing. It was filmed at the Howl at the Moon pub in London and, interestingly, the first minute and a half of the video features 'Do I Wanna Know?' as the soundtrack, at which point Turner gets dizzy and hallucinates that the wall clock has melted in a nod to Dali's famous painting, The Persistence of Memory.
Watch the video on YouTube.
'Arabella'
Another popular track from their fifth album 'AM', the hypnotic beat and catchy lyrics have aided the song in becoming a staple in the Arctic Monkeys' discography. With a riff allegedly inspired by Black Sabbath's 'War Pigs', it comes as no surprise that the risqué music video has reached almost 90 million views on their YouTube.
From the lyrics, we can see that the singer is infatuated with his lover Arabella, putting her on an almost out-of-this-world pedestal with the references to 'interstellar' shoes, that she's 'made of outer space', that her 'lips are like the galaxy's edge' and that 'her kiss the colour of a constellation falling into place'.
Delving further into the "space" theme, it turns out that Alex had taken inspiration from TV's resident space expert, Dr. Brian Cox, telling NME: "The words are a bit Brian Cox, a bit Wonders of the Universe. They're my favourite words on there."
Watch the video on YouTube - be warned, it's an explicit one!
'Snap Out Of It'
Another track from the world-renowned 'AM', 'Snap Out Of It' was released as the sixth single from the album in 2014 with the bouncy track reaching Number 6 on the UK Indie Chart and has now been certified 2x Platinum. Apparently, the boys teamed up with Elvis Costello's drummer, Pete Thomas, on the record after Matt Helders drunkenly broke his hand during a recording session. Although he didn't perform on 'Snap Out Of It' in the end, Turner has credited him with championing this song with his "enthusiasm" which was "important for the journey".
From the lyrics, it sounds as though the protagonist is concerned he's about to miss the boat with someone he's interested in as they're in love with someone else: 'I heard that you fell in love or near enough / I gotta tell you the truth'. In the chorus, he says he wants to 'grab both your shoulders and shake' and tell her to 'snap out of it', later singing: 'I get the feelin' I left it too late', showing that he's interested but didn't make a move.
The second half of the chorus is: 'If that watch don't continue to swing / Or the fat lady fancies havin' a sing / I'll be here waitin' ever so patiently / For you to snap out of it'. Of course, the "fat lady singing" is a well-known phrase meaning that no-one knows how a situation will end until it does eventually end - so he's saying "it ain't over til it's over" with the person he's interested in, and still feels that he has a chance.
Watch the video on YouTube.
'I Wanna Be Yours'
Although renowned for their poetic lyrics, the Monkeys decided to look elsewhere for lyrical inspiration on this 'AM' album track. It's no surprise that he turned to John Cooper Clarke, a longtime inspiration of Turner's, and specifically his 1982 poem of the same name.
Turner said in 2013: "I was your typical teenager, trying to be cool and not interested and the teacher proceeded to read I Wanna Be Yours, doing an impression of Johnny. It made my ears prick up in the classroom because it was nothing like anything I'd heard especially like on this syllabus. Had I not seen him do his thing, I wouldn't have started writing like that."
John himself has explained the meaning behind his words in the past, describing it as "a classic style of love poem, in which the writer expresses his desire to be useful to the object of his desire." He told NME what he thought of the band using it: "I think it's great the band have used it, because I think it was always kind of a song. It's a poem that owes a great deal to popular music. He's a great lyricist and, well, he's a proper singer. He is emotive. He's got a great deal of feeling in his voice, and he makes that northern accent sound very sexy."
He added his thoughts of Turner's slight tweaks to the lyrics: "I would have expected that. I think that's great, that's what people do with songs. There's a tradition with this. Especially a number like that, because it cries out for updating because it uses brand names. One would expect it to be kind of updated, in much the same way that Sinatra might use different comparisons for a song like 'You're The Top' by Cole Porter."
Listen on YouTube here.
'Four Out of Five'
Released as the lead single from the divisive sixth album, 'Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino', 2018 track 'Four Out of Five' didn't actually come out until after the album's launch. While most singles precede an album release to serve as a taster for the full work, the Monkeys were keen for fans to see the record as a whole and listen to it as such.
Speaking to Zane Lowe when the album was released, Alex revealed that 'Four Out of Five' was an ironic joke about critics who "never give a perfect 100" no matter how good it is - and that's heard in the chorus lyrics: 'Four stars out of five / And that's unheard of'.
As with 'Arabella', there are plenty of outer space references here - plus, you know, the fact that the album's title is a nod to the Apollo 11 moon landing. In a 2018 interview with Vulture, Turner said he'd actually reined in a lot of the space stuff, explaining how the "lunar surface" is a nickname for a room in his house - and that once he'd thought of that, he'd "just kept going" with it.
"Four stars out of five is a bit of a pun, with the stars. I may have gotten a bit carried away there," adding that the original lyrics to the opening verse were: 'Karaoke and raspberry beret, in imaginative ways, and I get signed right then and there by a hotshot executive / I wasn't expecting it that easy'. Huh.
Watch the video on YouTube.
'Body Paint'
Appearing on their most recent album 'The Car', Arctic Monkeys released 'Body Paint' in September 2022 as the second single after 'There'd Better Be a Mirrorball'. With over 5 million views in its first three months on YouTube, it's safe to say that 'Body Paint' piqued the interest of fans.
Turner has described 'Body Paint' as the band's "costume change", telling Variety in October 2022: "It almost feels like there's three separate acts... You've got the front third, and there's a moment in the middle where the band totally disappear, and they come back on the last bit in a different outfit to the one they were wearing for the first two verses."
In the lyrics, it sounds as though the protagonist is almost gearing up to confront their partner over infidelity. The first lines are: 'For a master of deception and subterfuge / You've made yourself quite the bed to lie in', later singing: 'My teeth are beating and my knees are weak', as if they're nervous.
Interestingly, the lyrics are at odds with the relaxed tone of the music. Reading lyrics like: 'I'm watching your every move / I feel the tears are coming on', it sounds as though momentum is gathering and tension is building - but this doesn't reflect the chilled out nature of the song. And, of course, the "body paint" itself could be the singer's partner "covering up" their lies - or even wearing a mask and becoming a different person.
Watch the video on YouTube.