Music Critic Simone Salvatore revisits Arctic Monkeys’ most recent effort, finding that in retrospect it is a quality release.
The group’s more recent efforts have proved more polarising for long-time fans
If one were asked to pinpoint the best rock group of the last 20 years, chances are Arctic Monkeys would pop up in the conversation. Ever since their ground-breaking debut album Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not, the Sheffield rockers have proven to be one of the most consistently popular and crowd-pleasing UK bands, still capable of performing sold-out shows and headlining major festivals almost 2 decades into their career. However, despite garnering consistent acclaim from critics, the group’s more recent efforts have proved more polarising for long-time fans; such is the case with their most recent effort (released just over a year ago this month), 2022’s The Car. However, I would argue that not only is The Car a fantastic album, but is arguably on par with the band’s most popular works.
Much like its predecessor, 2018’s Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino, The Car marks a major sonic departure for the band, ditching their much loved indie-rock roots of punky guitars and thundering drums for a slower, jazz-inspired lounge-rock sound. Such a drastic change in style and instrumentation is likely what turned most long-time fans against these records; why deviate so drastically from a style of music that had brought them so much success? However, rather than criticising it for not adhering to the sound of the band’s older records, I feel it’s important we examine and appreciate the album on its own merits. Artists are inevitably going to evolve their style and sound as they get older. Alex Turner & Co. aren’t young twenty-somethings any more; much as I too would love to hear them make another ‘When The Sun Goes Down’ or ‘From The Ritz To The Rubble’, it’s unlikely that a group of men in their mid-to-late thirties would be interested in writing another song about dancing with girls or trying not to get kicked out of a club.
The use of a large orchestra and extensive backing vocals give an epic, almost cinematic feel to the proceedings
The album begins with the atmospheric ‘There’d Better Be A Mirrorball’, where Turner’s trademark crooning voice elegantly laments about the inevitable end of a relationship that was doomed to fail, hoping that he can still view it with the same romanticism he did when it began (‘So if you wanna walk me to the car / You oughta know I’ll have a heavy heart’). With its gentle strings and stabbing piano chords, you’d be forgiven for thinking that ‘Mirrorball’ sounds more like an unused James Bond theme than an Arctic Monkeys track. This grander, atmospheric sound can be heard on multiple tracks across the record, most notably ‘Hello You’, ‘Perfect Sense’ and the title track, where the use of a large orchestra and extensive backing vocals give an epic, almost cinematic feel to the proceedings.
‘Body Paint’ is the closest the band come to emulating their earlier records; though the song begins as a slow, piano-driven ballad (not unlike ‘Mirrorball’), the second half incorporates the oh-so familiar guitars chords and solos that punctuated their previous albums, whilst the lyrical content, discussing the fallout of a relationship due to infidelity, evokes some of the band’s previous songs such as ‘Dance Little Liar’ and ‘Do Me A Favour’.
That being said, The Car isn’t afraid to show the Monkeys’ ability to experiment with different genres. ‘Mr Schwartz’ takes a decidedly more stripped back approach by opening with the delicate strums of an acoustic guitar, almost like a more laid-back version of ‘Fireside’ from their fifth album AM. Songs like ‘I Ain’t Quite Where I Think I Am’ and ‘Jet Skis On The Moat’ have a distinctly more funk-inspired sound to them, with the wah-wah effects used on the guitars evoking the sound of Stevie Wonder’s ‘Higher Ground’. By alluding to distinctive musical sounds of the past (both from other artists’ discography and their own), the Monkeys establish nostalgia as a central theme of the album, much like the wistful lyrics and Bond-esque strings peppered throughout the track list.
The eerie, distorted synth that echoes across the entire song sounds like it could have been pulled from a 70s Doctor Who episode
This theme continues on by far the strongest track on the record, ‘Sculptures Of Anything Goes’, where the eerie, distorted synth that echoes across the entire song sounds like it could have been pulled from a 70s Doctor Who episode, whilst also mimicking the iconic, dissonant synth riff of Ultravox’s ‘Vienna’, continuing the album’s theme of remixing famous sounds throughout the history of music. Furthermore, the track’s lyrics could be interpreted as a meta-commentary on the fan reaction to Tranquility Base, and how many fans dismayed at their favourite band refusing to conform to the style established on their previous records, something Turner likens to ‘Performin’ in Spanish on Italian TV’.
The Car is also, in my opinion, a massive improvement on the new sound introduced in Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino. Despite not being a concept album, The Car feels far more cohesive than its bloated and often stylistically erratic predecessor, where the tracklist would awkwardly zig-zag between traditional jazz, funk, glam rock and psychedelic pop just to name a few. This mishmash of clashing musical genres resulted in a confused mess of an album, with no real identity or sense of who it was trying to appeal to. By contrast, the more consistent sound and instrumentation of The Car allows each song to complement the next, creating a coherent and all-round more satisfying experience.
While it may not have the catchy guitar riffs of Favourite Worst Nightmare, the heartfelt lyrics of Suck It And See, or the groovy production of AM, The Car is a seminal piece of work, and it’s a shame that so many fans have dismissed it as being among Arctic Monkeys’ weakest efforts. Whether you like their change in style or find yourself longing for the days of ‘505’ or ‘I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor’, you can’t deny that Arctic Monkeys are one of the most interesting rock bands of all time; unafraid to explore new sonic avenues, even if that means alienating a good chunk of their fanbase. If you’re a fan of the band but weren’t keen on this album when you first listened to it, I implore you to give it another try. Once you set aside the jarring change in style, you’ll find there’s much more to appreciate.
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