Alex Turner with Dev Hynes for a one-off show in London and recorded a spoken word track "A Choice of Three" for Helders' compilation album "". Turner has described Arctic Monkeys' third album, "Humbug", released in August 2009, as "a massive turning point" in the band's career. They travelled to Joshua Tree, California to work with producer Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age, and explored a heavier sound. While Petridis of "The Guardian" found some lyrics "too oblique to connect", he was impressed by the band's "desire to progress". He described "Cornerstone" as a "dazzling display of what Turner can
Favourite Worst Nightmare with each listen", while "The Guardian" said it had "successfully negotiated the daunting task of following up the biggest-selling debut album in British history" and stated that the second half of the album was the stronger half, noting the similarity to Morrissey in "Fluorescent Adolescent" whilst criticising the opening tracks, Brianstorm in particular. Their progression was also highlighted with "The Guardian" saying "if you removed everything from the album except Matt Helders' drumming, it would still be a pretty gripping listen", and "The Observer" praising the new sounds on the album referencing the "piercing, melodic guitar by Jamie Cook" and