Arctic Monkeys - The Car

https://media.pitchfork.com/photos/63061cdbc3194266963384da/master/w_1600,c_limit/Arctic-Monkeys-The-Car.jpg

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

Out October 21, 2022 via Domino

Yup, there's the car alright

great track titles again

Alex Turner -

I think we’ve got closer to a better version of a more dynamic overall sound with this record. The strings on this record come in and out of focus and that was a deliberate move and hopefully everything has its own space. There’s time the band comes to the front and then the strings come to the front.

From what I'm reading they are still going down the path of Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino sound on this new record.

good

*pointing* that's The Car

Sounding good!

ARCTIC MONKEYS PLAYING A NEW SONG TONIGHT pic.twitter.com/TfJrxMEcCq

— alex turner every 4 hours (@alexthourly) August 23, 2022

I truly love it, one of the best things they’ve ever done

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FY5CAz6S9kE

Agree, absolutely stunning

I didn't know Laurence Harvey could sing.

ooh that's gorgeous

I can't stop listening to this, it's so good

beautiful song. but i do miss the funny lyrics. hoping there are some of those on the album

given the tracklist i would imagine there will be at least some funny lyrics

this is stunning

since when has alex turner sounded like this...

since when has he looked like this

are they really popular in Mexico or something? like half the YouTube comments are in Spanish.

according to spotify their top five markets are:

london, uk
mexico city, mx
jakarta, id
sao paulo, br
santiago, cl

i think they also have a pretty massive following in spain

i am surprised!

like there are more people listening to them in Jakarta than New York City? More people in Mexico City than Los Angeles?

evidence supports but yeah, surprised.

according to spotify their top five markets are:

london, uk
mexico city, mx
jakarta, id
sao paulo, br
santiago, cl

Makes sense. A couple Argentine kids at the student newspaper here strum "R U Mine" on their guitars.

all those cities except santiago are more populous than new york and LA

nyc metro might be bigger actually but i dont know where the spotify "markets" lines are drawn. anyway if a band is popular in latin america those are not unusual cities to see above US ones

just reminded myself of the poem he read after winning the brits in 2014, lol. tbf after painting his band as guardians of rock'n'roll they're playing the part

also this song is v good i'm glad they are continuing the bowie-eqsue turn

nyc metro might be bigger actually but i dont know where the spotify "markets" lines are drawn. anyway if a band is popular in latin america those are not unusual cities to see above US ones

― ciderpress, Tuesday, August 30, 2022 1:21 PM (twenty minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

new york is split by borough. or at least brooklyn and the bronx are separate.

strong kurt wagner vibes to the vocal delivery

wow good call, i can totally hear that

I thought you might have been joking or something but your right a lot of Spanish speakers are replying on YouTube

So far I’ve read sensible people say it reminds them of Pulp (Hardcore era), Scott Walker, David Axelrod, Richard Hawley, Bacharach.. it’s one of those tracks I suppose; everyone trying to ‘place’ where they’ve heard that sound. I was stumped a bit tbh. Doesn’t sound like many other things I’ve heard. Richard Hawley probably ringing the most bells. Also 70s Walker Brothers.

I thought of Hazelwood lol

lots of things on tranquility base reminded me of hardcore-era pulp, but this doesn't

re: bowie similarities, i was racking my brain to figure out if it was in fact a bowie song that this reminded me of, and it does kind of remind me of "where are we now?"

are we really that impressed people from other places than US or UK listen to Arctic Monkeys, in 2022? that's pretty dumb and kinda offensive, sorry. I'm Brazilian and used to get to hear this all the time 'oh wow so strange you guys hear Pavement' or whatever. get over it

Sorry, not trying to offend. This has more to do with the comments than anything else.

brazil/south america is prob the biggest market left for rock music (save maybe the uk). santiago and sao paulo are among the biggest markets for bands like the foo fighters, ac/dc, metallica, the strokes, and a bunch of others

i was also hearing lambchop

oh yeah that's what it is

Ooh yeah I hear that.

mid period Walker Brothers, arranged by Burt Bacharach

It really is a pretty awesome tune

heard the single on the radio this evening for the first time.
all i could think of was the 'Made In Sheffield' album Tony Christie made with Richard Hawley.

A quite nice album that is too but I prefer Now's the Time

A quite nice album that is too but I prefer Now's the Time

as do i as that harks back to his northern soul roots and is a cracking album.
but the new AM single very much sounds like and has the same atmospehere as MIS.

I agree. And I've had difficulty placing it to any one useful evocation - just as I did with Tranquility Base Hotel (rather I felt it had more of a 'spirit', post-peak fame isolated hotel room burnout album cf. This Is Hardcore, Adore, Don't Stand Me Down) - so it's just as well.

I can confirm Arctic Monkeys are incredibly popular in Mexico and have been almost since the debut.

I can also confirm Alex Turner has been rocking great looks for years.

Arctic Monkeys play @KingsBklyn on September 22nd 2022. Tickets go on sale tomorrow, Thursday 1st September at 10am ET.
This is a phone-free event. For more information and tickets visit https://t.co/jk7CzVVJ17 pic.twitter.com/LxJPdfIb1k

— Arctic Monkeys (@ArcticMonkeys) August 31, 2022

"Phone free event"

yeah i can't find any mention of it being delayed?

nope y’all are right, the website i saw the video on had a typo

this is so easily their best album

not all as stunning as "there'd better be a mirrorball" and "body paint" but still all very good

would love it if they did more like "sculptures of anything goes"

"Sculptures of Anything Goes" is supposed to sound like a track off of AM?

it does not sound like AM much at all

https://www.nme.com/news/music/arctic-monkeys-say-new-song-sculptures-of-anything-goes-is-reminiscent-of-am-sound-3328241

During a recent interview with the Dutch radio station NPO 3FM, frontman Alex Turner said that ‘Sculptures…’ finds the Monkeys in a “different” musical landscape. “We haven’t really been to that place I don’t think, sonically,” he explained.

“That [song] does remind me a little bit of some of the desert-ier side of the ‘AM’ record from 2013. It feels like there’s still a bit of that dust in there.”

Turner went on to say that ‘Sculptures…’ came about after guitarist Jamie Cook “got a Moog synthesiser and put a drum machine through it, and made that sound”.

oh if he was just saying it's a vague resemblance in vibes that makes much more sense, but it would have been out of place on AM as-is

Either way, loved hearing about your first impressions. Excited for this, still two days away till released.

It's leaked.

yeah i'm not any sort of journalist or insider so if i'm hearing it before it's out then it's either leaked or it's just time zones where it's already friday here

3 hours until ufo has to give us all the goss on dry cleaning and the soft pink truth

i forgot the soft pink truth was this week, what a stacked week

don't really feel any urgency to hear the dry cleaning album though

same, dry cleaning bore me senseless

not to mention simple minds

I'm really fed up of that drum sound

would like to hear that Sculptures Of Anything Goes drum sound on more tracks, that's a v good diversion. enjoying this tho!

working my way through the first listen, and while the vibe isn't quite as immaculate and the lyrics aren't as adventurous as tranquility base, i'm thinking these songs are stronger as a whole

It's a stronger album. I never warmed to Tranquility.

or it could be I Get It Now.

They never really did it for me until TBH&C, which I loved. This one's amazing.

the gainsbourg and robailloux touches are not really there anymore, and in general tranq base had a sleazier feel which appealed to me. the songs are very strong though, which makes up for it, and the songs are strong enough that the string section doesn't feel overly bombastic. i'm curious to read about turner's inspirations for this one. feels very much like 70s jimmy webb at times.

The Car

is there gas in

Sculptures Of Anything Goes goes

Wow, this is very good. Sculptures Of Anything Goes seems to be the best newer song so far.

god they fucking did it again

imagine it's embarrassing to be in a rock band that is not the arctic monkeys

I was thinking if this was the 90s would I have gone to the record store today? I say probably and would have bought CRJ and this, would've probably waited on TS.

Obviously before I could hear them so it would have been blind.

tbh&c had its moments (mostly "four out of five") but didn't really do much for me overall. this one really nails it, the increased focus on the orchestration works so well

otm on all counts

Between this album and the opening track on The 1975's new album, I'm feeling stimulated by the chamber music synthesis stuff going on, on these new albums!

Almost like you have something riding on bands galore suddenly needing chamber arrangers ;)

(did I ever tell you that À l'ombre des cyprès is one of my favourite string arrangements ever? kiu etc)

I still have problems with Turner writing songs he's incapable of singing, but for the most part those songs and the band's performance of those songs work, especially the back half.

Almost like you have something riding on bands galore suddenly needing chamber arrangers ;)

More that I’m excited for future projects where the clients are making reference to such interesting source material :)

tranquility base hotel and casino is a 10/10 masterpiece fuiud

And that’s unheard of!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XVpFXiYBKI

Re-listened to Tranquility Base last night and… the lyrics are so amazing, I lost count of the zingers

“Science Fiction” is just an amazing all-time lyric

Moving away from the sound of “lads” means that a mood needs to be created and in general it’s a good mood and it was created

Put your heavy metal to the test
Might be half a love song in it all for you
Timing wise it's probably for the best
Come here and kiss me now before it gets too cute

https://www.billboard.com/music/chart-beat/taylor-swift-youngboy-arctic-monkeys-billboard-200-debuts-1235161345/

In a universe without Swift, this week’s Billboard 200 talk might be about whether or not the Arctic Monkeys would finally score their first No. 1. The U.K. indie quartet, superstars in their home country for the better part of two decades, have claimed six straight No. 1s on the U.K. Official Charts without getting higher than No. 6 on the Billboard 200, with 2013’s A.M.. But the group has only grown in stateside popularity since that album’s release, with several tracks from both that set and their older catalog becoming streaming perennials after finding popularity on TikTok.

This week, the band releases its seventh album, The Car, preceded by the dreamy singles “There’d Better Be a Mirrorball” and “Body Paint.” Neither song has found the same streaming success as lusty old hits — “505,” from 2007’s Favourite Worst Nightmare, remains their lone entry on this week’s Rock Streaming Songs chart. But the album has received rave reviews, and the band is preparing for its biggest tour so far, including arena headlining dates in Chicago and Boston, and two nights at New York’s Forest Hills stadium.

Yeah, I read the article earlier today and remembered my experience last week at our student radio station eboard meeting: a student pulled out a vinyl copy of The Car. It's amazing to me how this band has kept its popularity, and it took AM -- their fifth album! -- to consolidate it. If they know "old school" Arctic Monkeys, it's "R U Mine," "Why'd You Only Call Me When You're High," etc.

well they only really broke into the usa with am

i do wonder how many weird loungey albums they can put out before their fanbase loses interest though

KROQ, back in the day, did play "Fake Tales of San Francisco" and "I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor." Not sure if they kept playing them for the next few albums until AM .

To ufo's point, KROQ haven't played anything from their last two albums.

Billboard 200 New Releases:

1. Midnights - Taylor Swift
6. Arctic Monkeys - The Car
19. Carly Rae Jepsen - The Loneliest Time

The 1975 last week was number 7 and dropped to 60 this week.

In the UK TS number one and AM are number two.

Shadowy, speculative--dig the title and the picture of the car and "The Car"---nosing around the field and rooftop of pop-rock,familiar elements tilted: could be a virtually complete unknown, a mysterious 60s one-off, with occasional far-flung passing mentions across the decades finally becoming a snap of recognition when it's finally reissued and on the cover of Uncut. People have tried to achieve this effect before , but so far The Car eases by over-familiarity with the known obscuros and registered cult figures: got its own shadows, own speculations and other commentary.
At first the voice seemed too wheedley, too late-Nick Lowe, but the music got me and I started thinking of it as Everything But The Voice, then I didn't mind the voice, then I realized it was part of the overall effect, taking me along (like Old Nick really doesn't).

I know these guys are really popular, but wow, the cheap seats at their upcoming show in Austin are >$200 a piece.