Hey, hey we're the monkeys

It’s that time once again. The wisecracking kids from Sheffield are back with their sophomore album. So get on your dancing shoes, you trendy little Arctic Monkeys fan. And that means you too over at HM Treasury. If only to show you a successful succession.

And making no bones about it: 'Favourite Worst Nightmare' is a brilliant album. What I found most striking is the amount of emotional depth injected throughout. I get the feeling that Arctic Monkeys have tasted the bitter fruit of life and their response is to smash the pulp right out of it. 'Do Me A Favour', a dusty, almost Americana style number about a broken relationship is devastating, a tale of "tears on the steering wheel dripping on the seat" which by the ending line of "perhaps fuck off might be too kind" left me weeping.

Another belter is 'Fluorescent Adolescent', possibly the catchiest thing they've ever written. It's a song of an aging harlot who is bored with life in a steady relationship (“You used to get it in your fishnets, now you only get in your night dress”). It reminded me of Morrissey and Kirsty MacColl's chronicling of slightly sad English lives. What’s more, it contains the best euphemism for a lacklustre sex life I’ve ever heard: “That bloody Mary is lacking in Tabasco.”

Did you know there are only five months until this year's Mercury Prize ceremony? I'll see you at Ladbrokes.

'Favourite Worst Nightmares' was released yesterday across the UK.