On May 11, English rock band, the Arctic Monkeys, released their sixth album titled, "Tranquility Base Hotel and Casino." Highly criticized at first for the band's abandonment of their past sound and style, it has now started to be accepted by the fans, and most likely draw in an entirely new crowd as well. The 2013 album, "AM" was a monster success, debuting at the number one spot on U.K.
album charts, and selling 157,000 copies in the first week alone. This album put the Monkeys down in history as the first independent labeled band to have five number one albums in the U.K in a row. Expectations were high for their next album, and the band certainly did not play it safe.
Turner's re-invention is far out
According to an article published by Pitchfork, lead singer and songwriter, Alex Turner, wrote most of the album back in 2016, at an upright piano at his home in Los Angeles, California. Inspired by science-fiction and film, the new material puts out an almost nostalgic-futuristic sound, that also has heavy influence in jazz, and pop.
Lyrically, Turner has moved from his intellectual-punk-like style and has replaced it with a more gentle, but ludicrous feel. Their new single, "Four out of Five" was performed on Jimmy Fallon's, "The Tonight Show" last week, and the single features a music video that really shows the kind of atmospheric world Turner was pulling from when writing the album. According to an article published by Independent, the video was also inspired by the work of film director, Stanley Kubrick.
Influenced by some of the greats
Others have compared some of the tracks, musically, to David Bowie, including the single "Four out of Five." The album has also been noted for referencing The Strokes, and how much of a great influence they had on the band's music earlier in their career.
The musical arrangement in the song "The Worlds First Ever Monster Truck Front Flip" has even been compared to The Beach Boys masterpiece, "Pet Sounds," which is an album that is ranked as the second greatest of all time by Rolling Stone, right behind The Beatles, "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band." Perhaps it may be quite a leap to compare this album to such universally accepted brilliance, but it can't be forgotten that many of these great albums were not appreciated in their time. It may take the pubic's eye awhile to find the next "Highway 61 Revisited," or the next "Pet Sounds" for this matter, but an album that challenges what is, and is not, accepted will be what we find.