Arctic Monkeys Copyright: Arctic Monkeys

All hell broke loose online yesterday afternoon when Sheffield's finest (sorry Jarvis) announced details of their first new album in five years.

So far, all we have to go off is some synthesized strings and a space-age blues riff, alongside a ridiculous title; Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino.

Oh, that and some equally interesting songs titles such as Batphone, The World's First Ever Monster Truck Front Flip and The Ultracheese.

No, really.

Not that a ridiculous title or two has ever hindered a great rock 'n' roll record, however; try Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum on for size.

But with only 42 seconds of new music and some bizarre names to guide us, let's take a look back at how the Monkeys' sound has developed over their previous five efforts, so we can attempt to see in which direction they are headed come what 11 May.

'Cause you don't know where you're going if you don't know where you've been.

Or something like that.

1) Ramshackle young northern indie punk-rockers

The High Green lads burst on to the scene in 2006 with their game-changing debut Whatever People Say I Am That's What I'm Not, which chronicled wild nights and young lust in South Yorkshire.

Not only did the record make it instantly cool again to sing in a northern accent/dialect but it also inadvertently changed the record industry forever, after the band's friends uploaded their early demo CDs to Myspace and helped them create an instant online fan base without any help from a record label.

Tracks like I Bet That You Look Good on the Dancefloor (above), Mardy Bum and When The Sun Goes Down drew on early noughties indie rock influences like The Strokes, The Vines and The Libertines and became the fastest selling debut album in British music history.

2) The difficult transitional second album

How on earth do you follow that then?

Well, firstly with more indie bangers, like debut track Brianstorm (above) and Inbetweeners theme tune Fluorescent Adolescent; their first foray into the world of daft naming conventions.

However album #2; 2007's Favourite Worst Nightmare, was a little heavier, more ambitious and showed signs of what was to come from Alex and co, as they worked with producer James Ford - of Simian Mobile Disco -for the first time.

The highlight being their most spacious, slow-burning and moody track to date; album closer 505, featuring their pal Miles Kane on guitar.

Only Ones Who Know gave us our first glimpse of Alex the crooner - a la Richard Hawley/Morrissey - too, after his rapid fire delivery of the first record.

This was the sound of a band in cool transition but still top marks for not trying to change too much too soon.

3) The dark desert stoner psych rock record

OK, transition over.

By 2009, with two number one records and a Glastonbury headline slot already under their belt, the UK's biggest band grew out their hair, left these shores behind and headed out to the LA desert on their motorbikes with QOTSA's Josh Homme to make some of their most weirdly wonderful music so far.

The quite literal tales of hedge hopping, queue jumping and taxi fare dodging back home were substituted for far more opaque lyrics in tracks like Crying Lighting and My Propeller.

This record felt less like reading extracts from young Alex's diary and more like looking at his first full attempts at surrealist painting.

But in A minor.

4) The sparkling jangly hippy guitar pop one

When the Arctic Monkeys began their journey to the top they dressed (trackie bottoms tucked in socks) and sounded (oh but it's reet hard to remember) like the fans that helped them to break through in the first place.

The mysterious darkness of their third record however, aligned with the band's by now established LA rockstar lifestyles - fit with model girlfriends, freshly-groomed haircuts and transatlantic accents - may have left some fans feeling like they'd lost the cheeky Yorkshire chaps forever.

That all changed with 2011's Suck it and See, as the Monkeys let the sunshine back in with jangly guitars and lovelorn melodies like on the above title track and swirling album opener She's Thunderstorms.

The fun and mischief of their debut returned too with the suggestive album title and Nuggets-esque tracks like Don't Sit Down 'Cos I've Moved Your Chair and Brick by Brick.

The sound of four accomplished ex pat superstars loving their new life the sun.

5) The sleazy modern hip hop beat of seasoned festival headliners

The inspiration for the name of 2013's AM may have come from a similarly-initialed Velvet Underground record but the sound was more akin to beats made by Dre Dre.

After seven years in the game, moving through the gears from young indie punks to dark stoner rockers, and then on to new-age rich hippies, the Arctic Monkeys were about to get modern and get sleazy.

As the old Blur song goes "your mind gets dirty, as you get closer to thirty" and from the filthy opening riff of track one Do I Wanna Know (above) the Monkeys unashamedly crossed over into world of Drake, Rihanna and other properly polished US pop stars.

The new era was confirmed with a slick Live Lounge Drizzy cover, with a wet-look Alex grooving, sans guitar.

Do I Wanna Know even became their biggest hit in their semi-adopted home from home and the album won best album at the Brits - the third time they've won it.

A second Glastonbury headline slot followed, with new tracks like RU Mine becoming instant fans favourites, while I Wanna Be Yours; a re-working of an old John Cooper Clarke poem showed that the newfound R & B stars hadn't forgotten their Northern street poet roots really.

Since the last record, Alex has enjoyed a fun-looking gap year or two with his side project The Last Shadow Puppets (and grown a goatee by the looks of it), covering David Bowie and Leonard Cohen along the way, while drummer Matt Helders has been back to the desert with Josh and his new pal Iggy Pop.

In that time too Bowie and Cohen have died, Justin Timberlake has gone country, Bob Dylan swing and the whole pop world Latino...

So do we wanna know what new mad sounds the Monkeys will return with next month?

Yes please - reet away.