Arctic Monkeys changed tack on their latest album, Humbug, prising themselves away from the delights of Sheffield to record a darker album from the deserts of California.

While slower album sales suggest some of their fanbase aren’t ready to embrace this change, the group are still popular enough to sell out the 12,500-capacity Wembley Arena for two nights running.

Opening their set with the shimmering ballad Dance Little Liar — a showcase for Alex Turner’s newly developed croon — they sounded a world away from the Sheffield scamps of yesteryear.

The thunderous Brainstorm, powered by hard-hitting drummer Matt Helders, turned things up a notch, before Still Take You Home arrived on a wave of angular guitar riffs and laddish lyrics.

Aside from the occasional bit of head-banging from the impeccably coiffeured Turner, who looked every inch the rockstar, the group remain a rather static live act. This meant that most of the fun was to be had watching the rowdy crowd, who moshed their way through the punkish clamour of I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor.

Of the new material, My Propeller stood out with its spaghetti-western guitar line and thinly veiled metaphors. “Take a ride on my propeller,” sang Turner. “I can’t get it started on my own.”

It was the old classics, however, that garnered the best reaction. When the Sun Goes Down prompted a mass sing-along, before its spiky guitar riff threatened to take the roof off.
Arctic Monkeys may be changing their sound for the future but last night they weren’t afraid to plunder their past to please the crowd.