Four albums in, Arctic Monkeys have experienced all the shades of the transatlantic pop spectrum: Whatever People Say… and Suck It and See were Libertines- and Beatles-aping exercises in pristine proper Englishness while Favorite Worst Nightmare and Humbug, both sluggish and beastly, were distinctly American with their grizzly, greasy late-night ways. If new single “Do I Wanna Know?” is any indicator, the Monkeys are kneeling again at the blood splattered, booze drenched altar of Josh Homme and his chain smoking, bike riding, whiskey pounding American ilk for their fifth album, AM.
The track finds the band at their most groovy, bordering on sludgy. A giant bass hit opens the song and soon the guitar follows and you can almost hear the desert sand pouring through the mesh of the amp. Alex Turner’s lyrics prove deceptively simple this time around, eschewing his Humbug-era abstractions for cautious admissions of punch-drunk love. A piercing falsetto call-and-answer marks the prechorus and then everything explodes for the menacing choral bark “Crawling back to you!” And then, like a sidewinder, the song slithers right back into its midnight groove, comfortable in being Arctic Monkeya’ best single since Turner last cried lightning.