Get in and shut the door; Arctic Monkeys are back and they are offering one unforgettable ride through music history with their seventh full-length studio album The Car.
The band’s previous album, 2018’s Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino, saw Alex Turner and company embark on a sonically experimental journey to the Moon through intricate piano arrangements and spectacularly grandiose rhythms.
Many claimed that they lost their identity with that album, a statement that will most certainly be echoed when The Car is brought into conversation as well.
On the contrary, Arctic Monkeys have not missed a step.
They have always been a band about capturing other-worldly experiences and dealing with their consequences.
On The Car, they simply make the experience last forever.
On the tear-jerking opener, There’d Better Be a Mirror Ball, Turner invites us all to walk him to the car before the band hit the pedal to the metal on I Ain’t Quite Where I Think I Am.
The Marvin Gaye-sounding epic contains some of the band’s most ambitious grooves and finds Turner’s lyricism at its very best.
Lines such as ‘The spare set of tingles will race up your spine if I have my way’, successfully capture the feeling that The Car seeks to embody throughout its 37-minute runtime.
Despite Turner’s larger-than-life personas taking centre stage on most songs, the rest of the band never fails to match him in their scope.
The haunting drums of Matt Helders on the brooding, Pink Floyd-esque Sculptures of Anything Goes conveys the mood perfectly and dives deep into a darkness that the band don’t usually display.
On the sexy Jet Skis On The Moat, a song that can definitely accompany a James Bond intro, Jamie Cook and Nick O’Mailey’s bass and guitar intertwine beautifully to create a soothing urgency.
All of these factors merge excellently on the album highlight Hello You, as its classical strings give way to a catchy guitar riff taken straight out of Knee Socks from AM.
It will undoubtedly have the entirety of the Emirates Stadium singing along to its brilliant chorus in the summer.
All in all, The Car is a brilliant record worthy of many listens and it doesn’t fail to make the journey unforgettable.
Featured Image Credit: Bill Ebbesen
