"The Hellcat Spangled Shalalala," "Love Is a Laserquest," "Don't Sit Down 'Cause I've Moved Your Chair": Arctic Monkeys frontman Alex Turner stakes a claim to the title of Pop Music's Funniest Song-Titler, an honor previously held by Morrissey. The Monkeys' cheeky verbosity marks them as distinctly British, as does their preference for retro-leaning guitar pop. Hopefully, Yanks won't be put off, because this is the band's best since its 2006 debut, with punchy, punky burners, grand ballads, and, throughout, wit. "If you're gonna try and walk on water," Turner sings, "make sure you wear your comfortable shoes."

Listen to "Reckless Serenade":

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“The Everchanging Spectrum of a Lie”

The opener off the Welsh group’s The Big Roar album was an epic one, but the band was worried that track had polarized fans. “The first song is eight minutes long,” Rhydian Dafydd, the Joy Formidable bassist, said. “If you did that in the Seventies people would be, ‘Whatever.’ You do it now, people think, ‘Holy s---!’ Some people think it’s the f---ing greatest track on the entire album, and some people think it’s f---ing boring. It’s that element of needing to challenge people.” The band concluded through the song’s lyrics that love was the “everchanging spectrum of a lie.”