Arctic Monkeys Announce New Album 'The Car'

British rock band Arctic Monkeys have announced the release of their seventh studio album, The Car, revealing key details about the new album's direction, recording process and overall sound, in an interview with Big Issue. 

The new album is highly anticipated, with fans eager to know where the band will lead from their 2018 release, Tranquillity Base Hotel & Casino, which received rave reviews from critics but mixed reviews from listeners, with some calling the album "polarising". 

Drummer Matt Helders stated that the album does follow in the footsteps of Tranquillity Base Hotel & Casino, "it’s never gonna be like ‘R U Mine?’ and all that stuff again, you know, the heavy riffs and stuff. But there are riffs in there and [it’s] a bit more up-tempo, even though it’s not loud.”

The new album kept long-time producer James Ford, but the band decided to experiment with the recording process, drawing inspiration from old school rockers. “There’s a bunch of Led Zeppelin and Stones records where they were in this house in the country and then they went and sorted it all out and overdubbed it elsewhere,” Alex Turner, lead singer/guitarist revealed. 

So that is exactly what Turner and the band did, hiring out Butley Priory, a converted monastery in rural Suffolk, in the summer of 2021 to lay down the roots of the album before going back to London to clean it up. 

Martin Compston, star of BBC1’s Line Of Duty, dubbed the album as "fucking class". The highest compliment from Brit to Brit. He also detailed that the new album has "Bond villain overtones”, to which Turner somewhat disagreed with.

“It’s a response I’ve had to other things we’ve composed,” replied Turner, “this idea of something sounding ‘cinematic’. I never completely subscribe to it, but it’s louder this time.”

It seems clear that whoever listens to the new album has a different idea of what it sounds like, whether it's "loud", "cinematic" or just plain "up-tempo", it seems to hold a positive tone.

Their new song, I Ain't Quite Where I Think I Am, gives a taste, walking the line between the funky, long-form exploration of Tranquillity Base Hotel & Casino, mixed with the heavy, sexy guitar riffs of their AM era. Not officially released as of yet, the band have been whipping it out at gigs, and badly recorded videos of the song litter YouTube and fan pages, indicating the excitement of new Artic Monkeys music in four years.  

The new album is set for release on the 23rd of October. You can pre-order the album here, including standard LP, CD, cassette mediums. An exclusive, custard-coloured LP will be available at independent record shops.

The Car Track-list

1. There’d Better Be A Mirrorball

2. I Ain’t Quite Where I Think I Am

3. Sculptures Of Anything Goes

4. Jet Skis On The Moat

5. Body Paint

6. The Car

7. Big Ideas

8. Hello You

9. Mr Schwartz

10. Perfect Sense