Tranquility Base Hotel + Casino

About

As Alex Turner sat at home in Los Angeles writing at the piano he’d received as a 30th birthday present, he wasn’t sure if the songs that were coming out of him were for Arctic Monkeys or a different sort of project. They certainly didn’t sound like anything the Sheffield quartet had just finished touring the world with. This was music that shook off the futuristic blend of rock riffing and R&B-ish grooves that underpinned 2013’s <i>AM</i> in favor of something altogether more retro and lounge-y. But upon hearing demo versions of the songs that Turner had fleshed out on an eight-track recorder, his bandmates convinced the frontman that this was where they should be heading next. Arctic Monkeys were about to embark on their most cosmic adventure yet. In the same way that <i>AM</i> established that the four-piece were no longer drawing inspiration from street-level shenanigans around Sheffield, <i>Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino</i> cast aside the notion of Arctic Monkeys as the next superstar purveyors of anthemic indie rock, mainly because there was zero sign of any anthemic indie rock on this sixth album. In its place was something more daring and ambitiou. Not since Radiohead followed up <i>OK Computer</i> with <i>Kid A</i> had a Glastonbury headliner-level guitar band so deliciously wrong-footed their audience. Much in the same way that Thom Yorke’s band had transformed, Arctic Monkeys had found a new sound that was an effortlessly natural fit. Throughout the record, Turner excels in his role as the louche, wry piano-playing narrator at the center of these song, the music around him gliding from hazy funk to psychedelic soul, with the crackled groove of ’70s film soundtracks here and a ’70s classic rock sway there. Recording <i>AM</i>, the group had wanted to evolve beyond sounding like four people playing the same traditional instruments together and here they broke another rock band norm, enlisting a rabble of friends and musician, including producer James Ford, Tame Impala bassist Cam Avery, and former Klaxons frontman James Righton, to contribute to recording sessions at La Frette, a residential studio on the outskirts of Pari. There was a spirit of collaboration at the heart of these song, something that gives <i>Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino</i> its bewitching sense of constant movement. .

via Apple Music

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