Review Summary: PM
Over the years, the Arctic Monkeys’ growth and maturity has been perfectly paced alongside my own. When the lads burst onto the UK music scene with a number one smash hit I had just turned 17 and much like them I was bunking into pubs, pulling all nighters and generally tearing up my town with my own set of like minded friends. The debut album, and Favourite Worst Nightmare spoke to me and my mates, like thousands of others across the UK and eventually the globe as it told our stories of youthful recklessness with wit and charm and a catchy hook and ultimately, though the sound has changed multiple times now, it’s the wit and hooks that have remained consistent throughout their career.
Following on from reckless abandon and a top night out with a couple of mature efforts rarely works but I lapped up the next couple of offerings greedily before they hit with another huge smash reintroducing a bit more pop to their formula with AM. Much like how the first two albums give me huge nostalgia for my youth, AM was the soundtrack to my future wife and I’s first dates. She even bought me the vinyl for Christmas.
Rambling aside, there’s a point here, and the point is that whilst Turner and pals have changed their sound repeatedly, they’ve always managed to hit the spot for what I needed in my life at the time and this album is no different. Right now, I wake up at 5am to walk the dog, I work too hard, I don’t get to relax until around 8pm and I don’t have the energy to go out on the town and party like I used to. This generations ‘I Bet That You Look Good On The Dance floor’ wouldn’t resonate with me, I don’t know who wrote it, but I don’t like that I’m old enough to be their Dad.
What ‘The Car’ does, is take the songwriting formula from ‘Tranquility Base Hotel And Casino’ and take it to the next level with beautiful, sometimes powerful though often subtle orchestration. Alex Turner has his usual tales and characters to tell us about with no lack of punchlines and wit as always. The difference nowadays being that he’s sitting next to me telling me a story over a whisky, rather than inciting a riot in a ***ty pub and encouraging me to get the next round of shots in.
The main differences from Arctic Monkeys is they feel so much more confident in their songwriting in this style second time around and Turner’s vocals have gone up another level. I mentioned being subtle earlier and that’s the confidence in their own songwriting that allows the songs room to breath. It would be so easy to overuse the lush orchestration on offer but it’s so tastefully done, never dominating or outstaying it’s welcome. This is the same with Turner who has really improved his vocal chops but doesn’t overuse his recently improved falsetto and other talents focusing more on what tells the stories and works with the songs.
And then on the songs. If you didn’t like Tranquility Base… then this will likely not wow you either, it needs to be said. But if you did like the previous album, you’ll like this at least on a par I’m sure. There are really strong moments all across the album but none more so than second single Body Paint which has a beautiful outro guitar like a low-key I Appear Missing from past collaborator Josh Homme’s day job. And I can’t really believe I got this far in the write up without saying outright - the guitars are back. One thing lacking from the last album was the guitars which had been forever at the forefront of Arctic Monkeys’ music, but now they’re back with some beautiful licks and melodies. Rarely are they leading the song anymore, but they’re much more present again.
This album is mature and warm. It’s not partying to the AM like we used to from the debut to AM, it’s comfortably catching up with an old friend over a good bottle and enjoying the PM, because we don’t need to try so hard anymore to enjoy ourselves and we couldn’t pull it off gracefully even if we wanted to.
