Arctic Monkeys Chart Success (Past Present & Future)

From their explosive debut to their lounge-rock latest album, every single Arctic Monkeys album has topped the UK official charts. The band had two no. 1 singles from their first album, 'I Bet That You Look Good On The Dancefloor' and 'When The Sun Goes Down', the former becoming one of their biggest, most recognised hits. From then on the band haven't had another no. 1 single. Favourite Worst Nightmare had the successful singles 'Brainstorm' (no. 2) and the acclaimed 'Fluorescent Adolescent' (no. 5) but then on Humbug the fantastic lead single 'Crying Lightning' failed to break into the top ten, peaking at no. 12. On Suck It And See 'Don't Sit Down 'Cause I've Moved Your Chair' reached no. 28 and was the only Top 100 single from that album. AM was very much a comeback album for the band, with several Top 100 singles like 'Do I Wanna Know?' (11), 'Why'd You Only Call Me When You're High?' (8) and 'R U Mine?' (23). Now, on 'Tranquility Base' their success and high vinyl and streaming numbers gave them 3 brand new Top 40 singles (the limit in the UK for how many songs an artist can lead on the Official Charts). 'Four Out Of Five' got to an impressive no. 18 whilst the other two charting songs went to no. 23 and 26 respectively.
This sounds like a strong comeback for the band but similar to on Suck It And See these singles dropped off very quickly. Only one week after entering the charts all of the songs have exited the Top 40. With 'One Point Perspective' dropping to 97, 'Star Treatment' to 87 and 'Four Out Of Five' falling to 50. This shows that the band have began to change into more of a legacy band, not in material and album quality but in chart success, with high-reaching singles that decline rapidly. It's a shame to see that it has become this predictable, but I do believe that it'll only continue in this way.

Check out my ranking of every Arctic Monkeys album on my blog, it's still Everything Arctic Monkeys week so be ready for new content on Sunday.