Alex Turner has reflected in a new interview with NME on the reaction to Arctic Monkeys’ 2018 album ‘Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino’.
The singer and guitarist was speaking to NME about the band’s new album ‘The Car’ as well as the enduring popularity of their songs ‘505’ and ‘A Certain Romance’, for the latest NME Big Read.
Turner also addressed in the interview the mixed response that greeted the arrival of the Monkeys’ ‘Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino’, which was a marked departure sonically from its 2013 predecessor ‘AM’.
“I’m actually pretty happy with how it went down,” Turner told NME about the reaction. “We achieved something that we may not have been able to in the past. I think it definitely gave us the confidence to go to a different place on a record.
“[‘AM’ opening track] ‘Do I Wanna Know?’ felt like a departure from everything that we had done before – and [‘Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino’] was similar. We had to almost acknowledge that our sound still had a little grease in its hair, and a bit of aggressiveness.”
Elsewhere in the interview Turner spoke about Arctic Monkeys’ upcoming UK and Ireland stadium tour, saying that the songs on the band’s new album ‘The Car’ are ripe to “hang out in a stadium”.
The band look set to miss out on the top spot on the UK Album Chart this week, with Taylor Swift‘s new record ‘Midnights’ outselling ‘The Car’.
Arctic Monkeys will feature in a special edition of Later…With Jools Holland next week that will celebrate their new album.