The 10 sexiest Arctic Monkeys songs
It’s true that there is nothing sexier than good old-fashioned rock and roll. It’s the reason girls screamed until they passed out in front of The Beatles or why the genre has delivered countless sex symbols. One of the biggest around remains Alex Turner, the dulcet northern-toned frontman of Arctic Monkeys.
No doubt, even before their breakout, Turner was the hottest thing on the Sheffield music scene. But when the band hit the big time, winning the Mercury Prize for their 2006 debut album, the members became the heartthrobs of the indie world.
Filling their tracks with rich guitar licks, big drum fills and, in the early works, charming northern accents, it was a recipe for success if the aim was to make knees weak. As they moved away from their scrappy teenhood and into their slick look of leather jackets and greased hair, they seemed to be on a mission to make their fans fall in love.
They had the tunes for it too. Across the band’s seven albums and five EPs, things regularly got steamy. Penned odes to love, lust and loss, they’ve covered every corner of desire across their discography. All done with a crooning voice and a penchant for roaring guitar solos, if seduction is what you’re after, these ten Arctic Monkeys songs will do the trick.
The 10 sexiest Arctic Monkeys songs:
‘Stop The World I Wanna Get Off With You’
It’s right there in the title really isn’t it. The band weren’t messing around on this 2013 B-side track. Instead, Turner and his band stare right down the barrel, aiming directly at their object of affection and shooting straight for it.
A perfect example of their AM-era sound, ‘Stop The World I Wanna Get Off With You’ is an outright indie track with a kind of indescribable quality of pure sex appeal. Maybe it’s Turner’s crooning voice as he began to abandon his Sheffield drawl somewhat. Or maybe it’s Matt Helders’ hot and heavy drum beats, making a song designed to swing your hips too. Either way, this straight-talking track would surely get what it’s after.
‘My Propeller’
Sometimes, they were a little more coy about it all, as the band’s 2009 album Humbug was a treasure trove of innuendo. Turner’s voice seems to sink to a lower register here, reintroducing himself as a real heartthrob now the years of being a scrappy young lad was behind him, and major success was here.
“My propeller won’t spin and I can’t get it started on my own / When are you arriving?” the band sing with a kind of sly wink and a nod. Getting going with the lounge lizard energy that would colour their later albums, ‘My Propeller’ is maybe the origin of their new, sexier identity.
‘Arabella’
Let’s be honest, every woman wishes she was Arabella, and every man wishes he had her. Singing about the ultimate dream girl with a true hypnotic energy, the track’s instrument keeps up with the sex appeal. Jamie Cook’s guitar is on fire here as the chorus comes in hot and heavy along with Matt Helder’s unrelenting drum line.
Maybe never in the history of the band has there been a sexier guitar solo than the one in ‘Arabella’. Describing a woman’s soul through a roaring riff is a fantasy that girls with boyfriends in bands worldwide dream about. “Wraps her lips round the Mexican coke / Makes you wish that you were the bottle,” Turner sings like a cherry on top of one of the hottest rock songs ever written.
‘Electricity’
In their AM era, Arctic Monkeys seemingly couldn’t keep it in their pants. Every track seemed to be hotter than the last, making it the band’s most seductive era by far. Criminally underrated as it was relegated to merely a B-side released with ‘R U Mine’, ‘Electricity’ is the band at their most riled up.
“Be my baby, be my GTO,” Turner sings, referencing Girls Together Outrageously, a band made up of Pamela Des Barres and the most infamous groupies of the 1960s. Another sexy ode to the hot girls side of stage, Arctic Monkeys build fantasy worlds that we’d all love to live in.
‘All My Own Stunts’
From that opening riff to Alex Turner’s hypnotic vocals, everything about this track is unassumingly sexy. Turner seems to let his voice roam, extending notes out and letting his register stray to new places to seductive effect. Playing with silence and sparsity, there is sexual tension in every pause and build here.
“I wanna be in that damsel patterned alley / Where you go for a smoke,” he sings, setting the scene. Is there anything sexier than that tense first cigarette outside? Sharing a lighter? Leaning on a wall and waiting for the kiss as Turner adds “I know you’ve got the moves”.
‘You’re So Dark’
Another seductive B-side from the AM-era, ‘You’re So Dark’ is more stripped back than its sexy peers but still just as sensual. In a similar vein to ‘Arabella’, the band paint a picture of a dream girl that is effortlessly cool, endlessly mysterious and coloured with a hot and healthy dose of pessimism.
Letting Turner’s vocals be the main effect here, he really leans into his role as indie music’s number one crooner. Confidently filling the heartthrob shoes, we’d dare anyone to hear him sing “I want you down on all fours” and not let a little weak in the knees.
‘Sculptures Of Anything Goes’
While the band’s seventh album The Car didn’t quite perform in the way many had hoped, failing to deliver on energy. It delivered plenty when it came to seduction. As a grower rather than a shower, if you will, its album tracks offer plenty of sensual soundtracks thanks to the band’s lazier lounge sound.
With its atmospheric and heavy beat, ‘Sculptures Of Anything Goes’ is cinematic. Offering a slower and more melodramatic take on sex appeal, the string section takes it all up a notch. As Turner croons his way through the track, keeping his vocals at the front of the mix so he’s almost whispering in your ears, it’s a song to get you hot under the collar. Especially when he instructs, “Gasp and roll your eyes”.
‘The Fire And The Thud’
Another one of Humbug’s innuendo-packed offerings, ‘The Fire And The Thud’ is a delicious take on desire. Feeling his way through the song with a sense of nonchalance, Turner’s lazily seductive vocals are deep and rich as he writes lust into everything.
“But if it’s true you’re gonna run away / Tell me where, I’ll meet you there,” he croons with no effort whatsoever as the band play a winding instrumental. An invitation to turn chat into action, hoping the object of your affection might fulfill your fantasies, the band wrote a soundtrack for adult daydreams as they sing, “Will the teasing of the fire be followed by the thud?”
‘Do I Wanna Know?’
Obviously. Have the band ever been sexier than on this anthemic number? With that relentless drum beat? That iconic riff? That echoing chorus? We’d argue not as ‘Do I Wanna Know?’ endures as one of their most seductive tracks.
Playing in the moments before actions, Turner and the band wrote an anthem for crushes and situationships worldwide that can’t seem to pull themselves away from each other. With the image of a lover crawling on their knees to get to another, there is no beating it. “Simmer down and pucker up,” Turner growls and a million fans swoon.
‘Batphone’
While Tranquility Base Hotel And Casino seemed more interested in space travel than sex, there was one track that maintained the band’s erotic energy. Once again, it’s a quality that feels impossible to adequately describe. There’s something in ‘Batphone’ that makes it stand up as one of the band’s sexiest tracks.
As Turner well and truly fancies himself as a Sinatra figure by now and the band have settled into their later sound, toning back the frantic rock energy for something more teasing, ‘Batphone’ is a slow burn track but a hot one nonetheless. When the bridge hits and Turner kicks it up a notch, upping the octave and the desperation in his voice, he’s practically down on his knees begging for it.
