Watch Arctic Monkeys‘ Matt Helders speak to Zane Lowe about ‘AM’ for new Apple Music’s 100 Best Albums list
The band's 2013 masterpiece is part of a comprehensive new list of unmissable records from the streaming service.
Arctic Monkeys drummer Matt Helders has spoken to Zane Lowe about the band’s 2013 classic AM as part of Apple Music’s 100 Best Albums countdown – watch their conversation first on Rolling Stone UK below.
The streaming service are running down a list of 100 unmissable albums from history. AM is among the next 10 albums being revealed today, alongside Oasis‘ (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?, Rihanna‘s ANTI, The Rolling Stones‘ Exile on Main St. and more.
Discussing the mindset of singer Alex Turner when making AM, Helders said: “I think it was just a particularly fun time for him, and career-wise and personal life. Like I said, we’d just moved and me and him were living together at that time. We’d got this place together in LA, so we were just experiencing all of that. So we were really just enjoying that part of his lives. I think he was just in a good place in terms of having fun with it. So then it meant he was having fun with the writing too.”
On the album’s sonic identity and the band’s insistence to not go back to previous sounds, the drummer said: “There was a moment where we consciously tried to see what it would be like if we did an AM-type of thing. We tried to do certain songs more in the style of ‘R U Mine?’ and that felt a bit forced, like we were trying to really bring the rock too much to some of these songs that needed to be a bit more soulful and hip-hop sounding.
He went on: “There is a weird version that I’ve got somewhere of ‘Why’d You Only Call Me When You’re High?’ that sounds a bit like ‘R U Mine?’. It is really fun to listen to but it just wouldn’t have worked. I think once [Alex is] done with something, he really has to feel like he can move on to the next thing, because he has given everything to that moment and there’s nothing left after that, I don’t think.”
Others already included on the list are Lorde‘s debut album Pure Heroine, Burial‘s classic Untrue, George Michael‘s Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1 and more.
Speaking about the list, Lowe said: “Putting this list together was a true labour of love, both in that it was incredibly difficult to do and in that we are all so passionate about it.
“We were tasked with selecting the 100 best — that’s practically mission impossible. But as music fans, it was also amazing to really take a minute and sit and think about the music and albums and artists that we love so much in this context. If this list sparks more debate among fans outside of Apple Music and gets people talking passionately about the music they love, then we’ve done what we set out to do.”