Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino
In 2016, Alex Turner received a piano for his 30th birthday and started playing seriously for the first time in over 20 years. Songs for Arctic Monkeys’ sixth album eventually emerged—a collection of brooding, cosmic lounge-pop that’s typical of the band only in its disdain for playing it safe. Here, light-years from their previous riff-driven adventures, melodies unspool slowly but stick faster with every listen. A watering hole on the moon provides the conceptual framework for Turner to muse on life, pop culture, and technology with heavy-lidded introspection. “I need to spend less time stood around in bars/Waffling on to strangers about martial arts,” he sighs on “She Looks Like Fun.” He shouldn’t be hasty: Wherever he finds inspiration, it takes his band to daring new places.
Arctic Monkeys’ daring sixth album is a left-turn if ever there was one, but the way Alex Turner swaps witty sleaze for absurdist suave makes it a totally bemusing and fascinating listen.
Arctic Monkeys’ sixth album feels unmoored, while Tee Grizzley’s Activated sounds like the work of a budding superstar, and La Luz explores the textures of its tiki-bar sound on Floating Features. These, plus The Body and Mark Kozelek in this week’s notable new releases.
Arctic Monkeys' shoot for the stars on their soon-to-be divisive sixth album. Read the NME review of 'Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino'
Alex Turner and co should be applauded for the audacity of Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino, but that doesn't mean it works
Over five albums Arctic Monkeys have established an unassailable reputation as Britain’s best band, with frontman Alex Turner arguably our best lyricist.
The adventurous British band put down their guitars for a weird lounge music detour
On their sixth album, the Sheffield band land on something creative, intriguing and completely different
It was inevitable that Alex Turner would incorporate the loungey swagger of his busman's holiday the Last Shadow Puppets into his main gig of the Arctic Monkeys, yet the soft louche touch of Tranquility Base Hotel + Casino comes as something of a shock.
Arctic Monkeys' sixth studio album Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino shoots for the moon and ends up in an endless line for tacos at a pop-up near Clavius.
Five years after the hugely successful AM and the hiatus that followed, Sheffield, UK's Arctic Monkeys are serving up perhaps their least co...
Previous Arctic Monkeys records drew unashamedly from their immediate lyrical and sonic neighbourhoods – a Sheffield nightclub, a California desert.
So here we are. Five years after the slicked back hair and leather clad riffs of AM, Arctic Monkeys are back with a new record, the oddly-titled Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino.
“Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed,” were the words of Neil Armstrong as he became the first human to touch down on the
Sheffield’s finest swap earthy rock for lunar vibes. It could lose rather than win fans, but that may be the point…
Credit to Alex Turner because Arctic Monkeys' piano-led sixth album 'Tranquility Base Hotel + Casino' may well alienate some casual and diehard fans.
A lot will be written about the stylistic turn the Arctic Monkeys sixth album Tranquility Base Hotel and Casino takes from the band's 2013 chart-topper AM...
Arctic Monkeys 'Tranquillity Base Hotel & Casino;' Adam Williams reviews the new full-length by Arctic Monkeys
Channelling Serge Gainsbourg and the Beach Boys, the Arctic Monkeys move on from stadium indie in a smart album that sees Alex Turner wearing a constant smirk
A brand-reinventing excursion, a loose concept album full of quirky tangents.
Arctic Monkeys - Tranquility Base Hotel and Casino review: Arctic Monkeys tell the punchline after they have told the joke
“I just wanted to be one of the Strokes/ now look at the mess you made me make,” sings Alex Turner on the opening track of Arctic Monkeys’ sixth album.
Indie guitar heroes head into completely new terrain with fine results. CD New Music review by Thomas H Green