Review | Arctic Monkeys – The Car

Label: Domino Recordings LTD

‘The Car’ is the seventh studio album by Arctic Monkeys and comes at a time that sees the Sheffield titans making the move to playing stadiums. Gone are the days of ‘I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor’ and ‘When The Sun Goes Down’ though.

Arctic Monkeys could have easily kept spewing out indie chart bangers but instead have chosen to grow and mutate their sound over the years and the latest iteration of that is ‘The Car’. It may be far removed from their starting point but now it is a much grander and mature sound. Though Alex Turner’s snappy lyrics are still there, musically they’ve crafted a soundtrack to a film that doesn’t exist.

‘Ain’t Quite Where I Think I Am’ has the groove, dusty sounding orchestration and wah guitar of a Blaxploitation film and ‘There Better Be A Mirrorball’ has the gorgeous lounge floatiness of a Bond theme but with Turner’s northern drawl draped over it.

The strings on slow burning tracks such as ‘Big Ideas’ and title track ‘The Car’ flow beautifully around the space left by the minimal use of Arctic Monkeys traditional instruments.

Though people may pine for their indie days to make a comeback, ‘The Car’ sounds honest and feels exactly the type of music that they should be playing right now such was the gradual approach to this orchestral movie sound.

Each track feels as though every note has been poured over and the result is an album that has a flow and grandness to it that really flexes Turner’s songwriting muscles.

‘The Car’ is an album to give yourself to so it can wrap you up and swirl around your head. Though the stadium concerts may not be the mosh pit frenzy of the past, you can be sure that with albums such as this, it will be an experience.