The debut studio album by Sheffield band Arctic Monkeys, released on 23 January 2006 by the Domino Recording Company. It arrived on the back of the chart-topping singles "I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor" and "When the Sun Goes Down", and captured the band at the moment they broke through from internet word-of-mouth to national success.
The record
Produced by Jim Abbiss and Alan Smyth, the album runs to thirteen tracks and a playing time of just under forty-one minutes. Its songs are built around sharp, first-person observations of nights out, taxi ranks and small-town life, delivered at pace over taut guitar work.
Reception and legacy
On release it became the fastest-selling debut album in British music history, selling over 360,000 copies in its first week, and it remains the fastest-selling debut album by a band in the country. It won the 2006 Mercury Prize and the Brit Award for Best British Album, was named the best album of 2006 by Time magazine, and received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Alternative Music Album.
Sleeve
The cover carries the album's now-iconic black-and-white portrait of a man drawing on a cigarette, with the Arctic Monkeys logo set into the upper-left corner.