Rumours are par for the course when it comes to Arctic Monkeys, particularly when they enter a period of inactivity. Since the Sheffield band wrapped up their tour for ‘The Car’ in October 2023, there’s been plenty of gossip swirling about their next moves. A new recording company and website update set tongues wagging about the possibility of a new album. Frontman Alex Turner’s reported recording sessions with producer Loren Humphrey sparked excitement about a potential solo album. Those final ‘The Car’ dates, meanwhile, have been suggested to be the Monkeys’ swan song by many pessimistic fans.
Even ‘Opening Night’, their first new material since their seventh album and the first track unveiled from the indie star-studded War Child’s ‘Help(2)’ compilation, has been enveloped in hearsay – that it’s their final release, that it’s an outtake from ‘AM’ sessions. Should the former end up being true, its title feels loaded with more than a little irony – the illusion of something beginning when it’s really reached its end. As for the latter, in a press statement shared today, the group said: “When James Ford called and asked if we’d contribute to the ‘Help(2)’ album, we set to work on a song idea and assembled in Abbey Road to record it.” That doesn’t sound like they just had a rummage down the back of the sofa for something they’d missed.
‘Opening Night’ certainly doesn’t sound like it would have come out of ‘AM’ sessions, either. From the beginning, wiry, robotic percussion intertwines with fingerpicked, clean guitar – stripped-back, lowkey and much less swaggering than the general feel of that record. As it builds across its four-and-a-bit minutes, a more classic Monkeys feel does sweep over things, from Turner’s intonation and the pacing of his lyrics, to the driving bass lifting the crescendo if not to thunderous heights, then at least to something gently stormy.
If Turner is looking back to any period in the past, it’s the point just after ‘AM’ when the five-piece were beginning work on the sonic shift of ‘Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino’. “10 years later, it’s been a decade / Coming together in a suitable space,” he croons. “Mystery boxes from which you cannot escape / Sticking your neck out in a spiritual way.” Later, there’s the briefest of trips down memory lane, as he urges: “Please don’t fall in love with everything on opening night / Flash back to infinity just one more time.”
If you’re looking for answers as to what the future holds, you’re not going to get them here. But if this is the last piece of music we’re going to get from Arctic Monkeys, it’s a solid way to bow out – interesting, enjoyable and for a mighty good cause. More tunes aside, it’s all we could ask for.
‘Help(2)’ is out on March 6 via War Child Records.