We move into 2006, with a classic January #1…
When the Sun Goes Down, by Arctic Monkeys (their 2nd and final #1)
1 week, from 22nd – 29th January 2006
A ‘January #1’ being a low-selling one-weeker, making it due to the general sleepiness of the market after the new year, potentially indie in leaning, or alternative in sound. Think ‘Sadeness Part 1’, or ‘Professional Widow’, or ‘The Masses Against the Classes’. Or indeed ‘When the Sun Goes Down’, Arctic Monkeys second #1.
Following their first appearance on this blog, there was some discussion of how Arctic Monkeys’ career can be split into two parts. Pre and post-‘AM’, their hugely successful 2013 album. To Gen Z, and therefore to streaming services and social media, that album is Arctic Monkeys. Which means their first four albums get overshadowed, forgotten even, in some quarters. It means you don’t hear ‘I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor’ as much as you might expect, and you almost never hear their second and final chart-topper.
Which is a shame. Okay, it might not be the most commercial of their hits. It might not be as light-hearted, or as danceable as its predecessor. I mean, it might feel strange dancing to a song about prostitutes, and the ‘scummy’ men that surround them. It’s musically bold, too, starting with an extendedly slow, almost jazzy intro, in which the scene is set (with a lyrical nod to another big hit about hookers, the Police’s ‘Roxanne’).
A minute in, and we snap into a much more trademark, sharp as a tack riff. It’s even heavier than ‘…Dancefloor’, the heaviest riff we’ve heard at number one for a good long while. Like ‘…Dancefloor’ too, the lyrics go from brazenly teenage – They’re all infected, But he’ll be alright – to sharply observant. And Alex Turner’s delivery remains unashamedly South Yorkshire – we get a ‘summat’, and a ‘fookin’ freezing’, while the second verse has an all-time rhyming couplet: ‘Ford Mondeo’ with and he don’t even have to say ‘owt…
The slow, solitary guitar returns for the outro – the song only really comes to life for a minute and a half – and ends on an almost comical, music hall riff. I don’t like this record as much as ‘…Dancefloor’, but I am glad that the band chose something as deliberately uncommercial – both musically and lyrically – for their second single, knowing that there was an excellent chance of it making number one. The video is worth a watch too, perhaps one of the most unglamorous music videos of all time, featuring a young Stephen Graham as a pimp.
Maybe surprisingly, after two #1s straight out the blocks, Arctic Monkeys managed no further chart-toppers. They had plenty of hits from their second album, before their fortunes slowly slipped with albums three and four. Then, as we mentioned above, they returned with the hugely successful ‘AM’ and seemed to become a completely different band. Since then they’ve long since stopped chasing chart hits.
Meanwhile rock music in general has all but disappeared from the Top 40 in the streaming age (‘Mr Brightside’ excepted…) So, once again, we can call Arctic Monkey’s British rock’s last hurrah, bid them farewell, and prepare ourselves for a future that neither rocks nor rolls…
Great song! While I’ve covered Arctic Monkeys a few times on my blog over the years, I’ve yet to explore them in a more systematic way.
My 2nd fave Arctic Monkeys single and another top 10 for me, but they have not gone top 40 in my charts with anything since 2014 – unlike side project The Last Shadow Puppets which have been Spectoresque and fab. Alex Turner more interesting outside the band.
There may be signs of a bit of a chart revival for Rock-Indie acts in the UK top 40 this week as Fontaines D.C. chart 3 tracks off the new number one album – indications of streaming popularity for the post-punk Irish collective. Starburster was a very good track and should have been a hit in its own right, though it did chart lower down the UK list.
Yes I struggled with anything from their last two albums. They felt deliberately ‘different’, and not much fun to listen to. I also think that it’s a reaction to the streaming climate, when rock groups go ‘gentle’, and release something that can slip easily into a background noise playlist.
Absolutely love this song. Awesome track. Really well-written – as per usual with the Monkeys, Alex Turner is such a great lyricist – and very catchy, while still being very much rock and roll. Really well-arranged song too, love the way it’s structured. I prefer “I Bet” but this is a wonderful song and a great follow-up No. 1.
This song and “I Bet You Looked Good on the Dance Floor” are definitely overshadowed compared to the AM songs (and “505” and “Fluorescent Adolescent”) which feels weird to say because this song has like 570 million streams on Spotify and “I Bet” has 604 million (99% of bands even from the 20th century would kill to have those type of numbers).
Weirdly, ive largely missed this band. There’s been a bit of a rock renaissance this decade, like Olivia Rodrigo’s Good4U.
True. I’d say there are more pop acts willing to add rock elements to their music now, but true rock as a genre is missing from the charts, apart from eternal oldies from the Killers, Fleetwood Mac, and Oasis.