The Car finds Arctic Monkeys running wild in a new and sumptuous landscape

Now, sixteen years later, the exciting freshness of daylight has passed, but what we’ve stumbled across instead lies a welcoming sunset evoking charm and warmth. Arctic Monkeys are perhaps one of the most unpredictable, innovative, and experimental British bands out there. Their deep grasp on nostalgia and the familiar enriches every aspect of their new material.

The Car, the band’s seventh album, features ten new songs written by Alex Turner, and is undoubtedly the singer’s most adventurous vocal performance of his career. Within the confines of Arctic Monkeys’ previous material, Turner’s vocals have remained mostly sultry and low in tone in a way that imitated his and the band’s endearing mystery and edginess. The record AM represented the essence of this '60s intuition with the dark grittiness of "Do I Wanna Know?" right through to "I Wanna Be Yours".

Tranquility Base Hotel + Casino provided a real deviation from the Arctic Monkeys sound that came to be so familiar. It was a venture into a new sound with distant nods to the band’s older material. At surface level, understanding and appreciating The Car may start with your relationship with Tranquility, but a deeper dive reveals more connections and mirrorings of older work, such as the kitchen sink lyricism of Whatever People Say I am, That’s What I’m Not, the darker, mysterious croonings of Humbug, and the reflective lamentation of Turner’s musings in Suck It And See.

The Car, therefore, does not shy away from laying it all out bare. "Sculptures of Anything Goes" taps into the ambivalence of past mistakes with lyrics such as “is that vague sense of longing kinda trying to cause a scene?” and “puncturing your bubble of relatability with your horrible new sound”.

The record also brings to the fore the masterful talents of accompanying band members Matt Helders, Jamie Cook, and Nick O’Malley with tracks like the '70s-inspired epic "Body Paint". “The strings on this record come in and out of focus”, Alex Turner described in a recent interview; “there’s times the band comes to the front and then the strings come to the front”. This is an element that truly comes through with tracks such as "I Ain’t Quite Where I Think I Am" and "Jet Skis On The Moat".

"Hello You" is the moment at which everything all comes together with grace and vivre. Dosed notably but delicately in dramatic riffing and drumbeats, the track playfully yet emotionally dances around with talented and creative lyricism which is demonstrative of the reverie of Turner’s talent: “‘As that meandering chapter reaches its end and leaves us in a thoughtful little daze / this electric warrior’s motorcade shall burn no more rubber down that boulevard’ / read the message I left on the thank you card.”

Putting the band under the microscope is an interesting challenge, but that’s all part of the fun. Since the release of Tranquility, it’s been difficult to pinpoint exactly where the band will go next. The Car flickers between solemn nostalgia but also having a blast – a journey which can be unsettling but fun and surprising in a way that you wouldn’t expect. Perhaps that’s the reflection of its namesake: much like being in a car, the route to where you’re going can be uncertain and unfamiliar. Arctic Monkeys are leading us all somewhere perhaps even they didn’t envisage, but some of the best experiences in life are ones that you didn’t plan for.